m 



JitlOIIISIIIB 



? LA' 



ft 








y 






r 

• k 

> ;. . .IV 






1 







1 , y Jfli 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS 



OF THE 



woe ld: 



COMPRISING 



A GENERAL VIEW OF THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND CONDITION, 
OF THE VARIOUS SECTS OF CHRISTIANS, THE JEWS 
AND MAHOMETANS, AS WELL AS THE PAGAN 
FORMS OF RELIGION EXISTING IN THE DIF- 
FERENT COUNTRIES OF THE EARTH; 



WITH 



FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES. 



BY 

VINCENT L.' r MILNEE. 

ii 




PHILADELPHIA: 
J. W. BRADLEY, 48 NORTH FOURTH ST. 
18 6 0. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 
J. W. BRADLEY, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPED Bf J. FAGAN. 



PREFACE. 



The following view of the religious denominations of the world 
has been carefully compiled from the best authorities on the sub- 
ject. In order to render it as complete as the limits of the 
volume would permit, the method has been followed of present- 
ing summaries of the doctrines of each sect or religion without 
in general adducing the arguments by which they are sustained. 
The latter course would have led into too wide a field of contro- 
versy. In order to preserve the degree of impartiality which 
the reader is entitled to expect in a work of this kind, the com- 
piler has confined himself to authorities in which the doctrines 
of the several sects are drawn from the published works of their 
founders or leading writers. 

The subject is full of instruction. It forms a part of the his- 
tory of the human intellect, as it has been exercised in different 
ages of the world, on topics the most interesting that can possibly 
claim the attention of mankind. In reviewing the various forms 
of faith and shades of opinion on religion which have prevailed 

(iii) 



IV PREFACE. 

in different ages and various parts of the world, we may learn 
the influence of external circumstances on internal belief; and 
tha-t of speculative opinions on the actual conduct of life. We 
perceive also the effect of perfect freedom of religious inquiry, 
in multiplying sects and dividing extensive religious organiza- 
tions into numerous branches. Above all, we may learn from 
this general survey of religious sects, the lesson of charity and 
forbearance toward those who may entertain theological opinions 
different from our own. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION Page 11 

BAPTISTS 35 

CONGREGATIONALISTS 43 

EPISCOPALIANS 46 

DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH 53 

GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH... 56 

LUTHERANS 59 

EVANGELICAL LUTHERANS 71 

METHODISTS 76 

METHODIST EPISCOPALIANS 95 

REFORMED METHODISTS 98 

METHODIST SOCIETY 93 

METHODIST PROTESTANTS 99 

WESLEYAN METHODISTS 100 

EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION 100 , 

CONGREGATIONAL METHODISTS 101 

AFRICAN METHODISTS 101 

COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL 101 

KIRK OF SCOTLAND 102 

1* (v) 



Vi CONTENTS. 

ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANS 110 

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS Ill 

REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS 118 

ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIANS 121 

ASSOCIATE REFORMED 124 

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS 127 

MORAVIANS ... 130 

FREE WILL BAPTISTS 132 

CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS 134 

9 MINOR DENOMINATIONS— BAPTISTS 143 

SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS 143 

EPHRATA BAPTISTS 147 

MENNONITES 148 

TUNKERS 150 

CHRISTIANS 152 

SIX PRINCIPLE BAPTISTS 154 

WINEBRENNARIANS 155 

UNITARIANS 156 

UNIVERSALISTS 158 

SWEDENBORGIANS 160 

ROMAN CATHOLICS 169 

PURITANS 185 

BROWNISTS , 188 

INDEPENDENTS 191 

NEONOMIANS 199 

NON-CONFORMISTS 202 

HUGUENOTS 206 

QUAKERS 213 



CONTENTS. Vii 

ARIANS 228 

ARMENIANS 230 

ARMINIANS 231 

BAXTERIANS 234 

SHAKERS 236 

THEOPHILANTHROPISTS 238 

GNOSTICS 241 

HUSSITES 245 

HUTCHINSONIANS 248 

ICONOCLASTS 253 

WICKLIFFITES 257 

WILKINSONIANS 258 

WALDENSES 259 

GREEK CHURCH..., 263 

MAHOMETANS 267 

JEWS 296 

MORMONS 312 

PELAGIANS 314 

EUTYCHIANS 1 315 

FIFTH MONARCHY MEN 318 

FRATRICELLI 319 

PIETISTS W .„.„„, M ™.™... 321 

MANICHiEANS 321 

MARCIONISTS 325 

MARONITES 326 

CALVINISTS 329 

MOLINISTS 333 

MONTANISTS 335 



viii CONTENTS. 

MUGGLETONIANS 336 

FLAGELLANTS 337 

ANABAPTISTS 341 

ANTINOMIANS 344 

JUMPERS 345 

LABADISTS 346 

MYSTICS 347 

ABYSSINIAN CHURCH 350 

ADAMITES 351 

ALBIGENSES 352 

PANTHEISTS 354 

SOUTHCOTTIANS 355 

SOCINIANS 358 

SANDEMANIANS 360 

NECESSARIANS 364 

LOLLARDS 367 

JESUITS 369 

HOPKINSIANS 378 

ERASTIANS 384 

DANCERS 385 

DAVIDISTS 385 

COCCEIANS 386 

COLLEGIANS 388 

BEREANS 388 

AGNOETiE 393 

ALBANENSENS 394 

LATITUDINARIANS 395 

ORIGENISTS 396 



CONTENTS. ix 

LIBERTINES 403 

EUNOMIANS 40 * 

EUCHITES 408 

EBIONITES 409 

DONATISTS .' 411 

DEISTS i 413 

SUBLAPSARJANS 4 16 

SUPRALAPSARIANS 4 17 

RELLYANISTS 420 

MONOPHYSITES 422 

MONOTHELITES 424 

CARMATHITES 424 

SADDUCEES 425 

SAMARITANS 425 

MELCHITES 426 

CORINTHIANS 427 

LUCIANISTS 427 

LUCIFERIANS 428 

GALILEANS 429 

SABELLIANS 429 

MATERIALISTS 430 

JACOBITES 435 

JANSENISTS 436 

FRENCH PROPHETS 440 

CIRCONCELLIONES 442 

COPHTS 444 

BASILLDIANS 446 

CHRISTIANS OF ST. JOHN 447 



X CONTENTS. 



CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS 448 

ANTISABBATAMANS 449 

ATHEISTS 449 

GUEBERS 452 

NESTORIANS 453 

PAGANS 458 

PAGANS OF CHINA 460 

PAGANS OF JAPAN 463 

LAMAISTS 468 

BRAMINS 471 

BUDDHISTS 474 

PAGANS IN AFRICA 477 

PAGANS IN MADAGASCAR 481 

PAGANS IN POLYNESIA 493 

PAGANS IN LAPLAND 498 

PAGANS IN NORTH AMERICA 500 

PAGANS IN MEXICO 504 

PAGANS IN PERU 510 



INTRODUCTION. 



SECTION I. 

STATE OP THE WORLD IN GENERAL, AT THE BIRTH OP 
JESUS CHRIST. 

When Jesus Christ made his appearance on earth, a great 
part of the world was subject to the Roman Empire. This 
empire was much the largest temporal monarchy that had ever 
existed, so that it was called all the world (Luke ii. 1). The 
time when the Romans first subjugated the land of Judea, was 
between sixty and seventy years before Christ was born; and 
soon after this the Roman Empire rose to its greatest extent and 
splendor. To this government the world continued subject til] 
Christ came, and many hundred years afterwards. The remoter 
nations, that had submitted to the yoke of this mighty empire, 
were ruled either by Roman governors, invested with temporary 
commissions, or by their own princes and laws, in subordination 
to the republic, whose sovereignty was acknowledged, and to 
which the conquered kings, who were continued in their own 
dominions, owed their borrowed majesty. At the same time, the 
Roman people, and their venerable Senate, though they had not 
lost all shadow of liberty, were yet in reality reduced to a state 
of servile submission to Augustus Caesar, who, by artifice, per- 
fidy, and bloodshed, attained an enormous degree of power, and 

(xi) 



xii 



INTRODUCTION. 



united in his own person the pompous titles of Emperor, Pon- 
tiffs Censor, Tribune of the People; in a word, all the great 
offices of the State. 

At this period, the Romans, according to Daniel's prophetic 
description, had trodden down the kingdoms, and by their ex- 
ceeding strength devoured the whole earth. However, by en- 
slaving the world, they civilized it; and whilst they oppressed 
mankind, they united them together. The same laws were 
everywhere established, and the same languages understood. 
Men approached nearer to one another in sentiments and man- 
ners ; and the intercourse between the most distant regions of 
the earth was rendered secure and agreeable. Hence, the benign 
influence of letters and philosophy was spread abroad in coun- 
tries which had been before enveloped in the darkest ignorance. 

Just before Christ was born, the Roman empire not only rose 
to its greatest height, but was also settled in peace. Augustus 
Csesar had been for many years establishing the state of the 
Roman Empire, and subduing his enemies, till the very year 
that Christ was born : then, all his enemies being reduced to 
subjection, his dominion over the world appeared to be settled 
in its greatest glory. This remarkable peace, after so many ages 
of tumult and war, was a fit prelude to the ushering of the 
glorious Prince of Peace into the world. The tranquillity which 
then reigned was necessary to enable the ministers of Christ; to 
execute with success their sublime commission to the human 
race. In the situation into which the providence of Grod had 
brought the world, the gospel in a few years reached those remote 
corners of the earth into which it could not otherwise have pene- 
trated for many ages. 

All the heathen nations, at the time of Christ's appearance 
on earth, worshipped a multiplicity of gods and demons, whose 
favor they courted by obscene and ridiculous ceremonies, and 
whose anger they endeavored to appease by the most abominable 
cruelties. 

Every nation had its respective gods, over which one, more 
excellent than the rest, presided; yet in such a manner, that the 
supreme deity was himself controlled by the rigid decrees of 



INTRODUCTION. 



Xlil 



fate, or by what the philosophers called eternal necessity. The 
gods of the East were different from those of the Gauls, the 
Germans, and other northern nations. The Grecian divinities 
differed from those of the Egyptians, who deified plants, and a 
great variety of the productions both of nature and art. Each 
people had also their peculiar manner of worshipping and ap- 
peasing its respective deities. In process of time, however, the 
Greeks and Romans grew as ambitious in their religious preten- 
sions, as in their political claims. They maintained that their 
gods, though under different appellations, were the objects of 
religious worship in all nations; and therefore they gave the 
names of their deities to those of other countries. 

The deities of almost all nations were either ancient heroes, 
renowned for noble exploits and worthy deeds, or kings and 
generals, who had founded empires, or women who had become 
illustrious by remarkable actions or useful inventions. The merit 
of those eminent persons, contemplated by their posterity with 
enthusiastic gratitude, was the cause of their exaltation to celes- 
tial honors. The natural world furnished another kind of dei- 
ties; and as the sun, moon, and stars shine with a lustre superior 
to that of all other material beings, they received religious homage 
from almost all the nations of the world. 

From those beings of a nobler kind, idolatry descended into 
an enormous multiplication of inferior powers ; so that, in many 
countries, mountains, trees, and rivers, the earth, the sea, and 
wind, nay, even virtues, and vices, and diseases, had their shrines 
attended by devout and zealous worshippers. 

These deities were honored with rites and sacrifices of various 
kinds, according to their respective nature and offices. Most 
nations offered animals, and human sacrifices were universal in 
ancient times. They were in use among the Egyptians till the 
reign of Amasis. They were never so common among the Greeks 
and Romans j yet they were practised by them on extraordinary 
occasions. Porphyry says " that the Greeks were wont to sacri- 
fice men when they went to war." He relates, also, "that human 
sacrifices were offered at Rome till the reign of Adrian, who or- 
dered them to be abolished in most places." 
2 



Xiv INTRODUCTION. 

Pontiffs, priests, and ministers, distributed into several classes, 
presided over the Pagan worship, and were appointed to prevent 
disorder in the performance of religious rites. The sacerdotal 
order, which was supposed to be distinguished by an immediate 
intercourse and friendship with the gods, abused its authority 
in the basest manner, to deceive an ignorant and wretched 
people. 

The religious worship of the Pagans was confined to certain 
times and places. The statues, and other representations of the 
gods, were placed in the temples, and supposed to be animated 
in an incomprehensible manner — for they carefully avoided the 
imputation of worshipping inanimate beings — and therefore pre- 
tended that the divinity, represented by the statue, was really 
present in it, if the dedication was truly and properly made. 

Besides the public worship of the gods, to which all, without 
exception, were admitted, there were certain religious rites cele- 
brated in secret by the Greeks, and several eastern countries, to 
which a small number was allowed access. These were called 
mysteries ; and persons who desired an initiation, were obliged 
previously to exhibit satisfactory proofs of their fidelity and 
patience, by passing through various trials and ceremonies of the 
most disagreeable kind. The secret of these mysteries was kept 
in the strictest manner, as the initiated could not reveal anything 
that passed in them, without exposing their lives to the most 
imminent danger. 

These secret doctrines were taught in the mysteries of Eleusis, 
and in those of Bacchus and other divinities. But the reigning 
religion was totally external. It held out no body of doctrines, 
no public instruction to participate on stated days in the esta- 
blished worship. The only faith required, was to believe that 
the gods exist, and reward virtue, either in this life or in that 
to come; the only practice, to perform at intervals some religious 
acts, such as appearing in the solemn festivals, and sacrificing at 
the public altars. 

The spirit and genius of the Pagan religion was not calculated 
to promote moral virtue. Stately temples, expensive sacrifices, 
pompous ceremonies, and magnificent festivals, were the objects 



INTRODUCTION. 



XV 



presented to its votaries. But just notions of God, obedience 
to His moral laws, purity of heart, and sanctity of life, were not 
once mentioned as ingredients in religious service. No repent- 
ance of past crimes, and no future amendment of conduct, were 
ever prescribed by the Pagans, as proper means of appeasing 
their offended deities. Sacrifice a chosen victim, bow down 
before an hallowed image, be initiated in the sacred mysteries, — 
and the wrath of the gods shall be averted, and the thunder shall 
drop from their hands. 

The gods and goddesses, to whom public worship was paid, 
exhibited to their adorers examples of egregious crimes, rather 
than of useful and illustrious virtues. It was permitted to con- 
sider Jupiter, the father of the gods, as an usurper, who expelled 
his father from the throne of the universe, and is-, in his turn, 
to be one day driven from it by his son. The priests were little 
solicitous to animate the people to virtuous conduct, either by 
precept or example. They plainly enough declared, that all 
which was essential to the true worship of the gods, was con- 
tained in the rites and institutions which the people had received 
by tradition from their ancestors. Hence the wiser part of man- 
kind, about the time of Christ's birth, looked upon the whole 
system of religion as a just object of ridicule and contempt. 

The consequence of this state of theology was an universal 
corruption of manners, which discovered itself in the impunity 
of the most flagitious crimes. 

When the Romans had subdued the world, they lost their own 
liberty. Many vices, engendered or nourished by prosperity, 
delivered them over to the vilest of tyrants that ever afflicted or 
disgraced human nature. Despotic power was accompanied with 
all the odious vices which are usually found in its train, and they 
rapidly grew to an incredible pitch. The colors are not too 
strong which the apostle employs in drawing the character of 
that age, in Rom. i. 21, 22, etc., and in Eph. iv. 17-19. 

At the time of Christ's appearance on earth, the religion of 
the Romans, as well as their arms, had extended itself through- 
out a great part of the world. Besides the religious rites, which 



xvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



Numa and others had instituted for political views, the Romans 
added several Italian and Etrurian fictions to the Grecian 
fables, and gave also to the Egyptian deities a place among their 
own. 

In the provinces subjected to the Roman government, there 
arose a new kind of religion, formed by a mixture of the ancient 
rites of the conquered nations with those of the Romans. Those 
nations, who, before their subjection, had their own gods, and 
their own particular religious institutions, were persuaded by 
degrees to admit into their worship a great variety of the sacred 
rites and customs of the conquerors. 

When, from the sacred rites of the ancient Romans, we pass 
to review the other religions which prevailed in the world, it 
will appear obvious, that the most remarkable may be properly 
divided into two classes — one of which will comprehend the 
religious systems which owe their existence to political views ) 
and the other, of those which seem to have been formed for 
military purposes. The religion of most of the eastern nations 
may be ranked in the former class, especially that of the Per- 
sians, Egyptians, and Indians, which appears to have been solely 
calculated for the preservation of the State, the support of the 
royal authority and grandeur, the maintenance of public peace, 
and the advancement of civil virtues. The religious system of 
the northern nations may be comprehended under the military 
class ; since all the traditions among the Germans, the Bretons, 
the Celts, and the Goths, concerning their divinities, have a 
manifest tendency to excite and nourish fortitude, ferocity, an 
insensibility of danger, and contempt of life. 

At this time Christianity broke forth from the east like a 
rising sun, and dispelled the universal religious darkness which 
obscured every part of the globe. " The noblest people," says 
Dr. Robertson, " that ever entered upon the stage of the world, 
appear to have been only instruments in the Divine Hand, for 
the execution of wise purposes concealed from themselves. The 
Roman ambition and bravery paved the way, and prepared the 
world, for the reception of the Christian doctrine. They fought 
and conquered, that it might triumph with the greater ease (see 



INTRODUCTION. 



XVII 



Isaiah x. 7). By means of their victories, the overruling pro- 
vidence of God established an empire, which really possesses 
that perpetuity and eternal duration which they vainly arrogated 
to their own. He erected a throne which shall continue forever, 
and of the " increase of that government there shall be no end." 

It has been mentioned to the honor of Christianity, that it 
rose and nourished in a learned, inquiring, and discerning age ; 
and made the most rapid and amazing progress through the im- 
mense empire of Rome, to its remotest limits, when the world 
was in its most civilized state, and in an age that was universally 
distinguished for science and erudition. 



SECTION II. 

STATE Or THE JEWISH NATION AT THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST. 

The state of the Jews was not much better than that of other 
nations, at the time of Christ's appearance on earth. They were 
governed by Herod, who was himself tributary to the Roman 
people. His government was of the most vexatious and oppres- 
sive kind. By a cruel, suspicious, and overbearing temper, he 
drew upon himself the aversion of all, not excepting those who 
lived upon his bounty. 

Under his administration, and through his influence, the 
luxury of the Romans was introduced into Palestine, accompa- 
nied with the vices of that licentious people. In a word, Judea, 
governed by Herod, groaned under all the corruption which 
might be expected from the authority and example of a prince 
who, though a Jew in outward profession, was, in point of 
morals and practice, a contemner of all laws, human and divine. 

After the death of this tyrant, the Romans divided the go- 
vernment of Judea between his sons. In this division, one- 
half the kingdom was given to Archelaus, under the title of 
Exarch. Archelaus was so corrupt and wicked a prince, that at 
last both Jews and Samaritans joined in a petition against him 
2* B 



XV111 



INTRODUCTION. 



to Augustus, who banished him from his dominions, about ten 
years after the death of Herod the Great. Judea was by this 
sentence reduced to a Roman province, and ordered to be taxed. 

The governors whom the Romans appointed over Judea, were 
frequently changed, but seldom for the better. About the six- 
teenth year of Christ, Pontius Pilate was appointed governor, 
the whole of whose administration, according to Josephus, was 
one continual scene of venality, rapine, and of every kind of 
savage cruelty. Such a governor was ill calculated to appease 
the ferments occasioned by the late tax. Indeed, Pilate was so 
far from attempting to appease, that he greatly inflamed them, 
by taking every occasion of introducing his standards, with 
images, pictures, and consecrated shields, into their city; and at 
last by attempting to drain the treasury of the temple, under 
pretence of bringing an aqueduct into Jerusalem. The most 
remarkable transaction of his government, however, was his con- 
demnation of Jesus Christ; seven years after which he was 
removed from Judea. 

However severe was the authority which the Romans exercised 
over the Jews, yet it did not extend to the entire suppression of 
their civil and religious privileges. The Jews were, in some 
measure, governed by their own laws, and permitted the enjoy- 
ment of their religion. The administration of religious ceremo- 
nies was committed, as before, to the high priest, and to the 
Sanhedrim ; to the former of whom the order of priests and 
Levites was in the usual subordination; and the form of outward 
worship, except in a very few points, had suffered no visible 
change. But, on the other hand, it is impossible to express the 
disquietude and disgust, the calamities and vexations, which this 
unhappy nation suffered from the presence of the Romans, whom 
their religion obliged them to regard as a polluted and idolatrous 
people ; in a particular manner, from the avarice and cruelty of 
the praetors, and the frauds and extortions of the publicans. So 
that, all things considered, their condition, who lived under the 
government of the other sons of Herod, was much more sup- 
portable than the state of those who were immediately subject 
to the Roman jurisdiction. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xix 



It was not, however, from the Romans only, that the calami- 
ties of this miserable people proceeded. Their own rulers mul- 
tiplied their vexations, and debarred them from enjoying any 
little comforts, which were left them by the Roman magistrates. 
The leaders of the people, and the chief priests, were, according 
to the account of Josephus, profligate wretches, who had pur- 
chased their places by bribes, or by other acts of iniquity, and 
who maintained their ill-acquired authority by the most abomi- 
nable crimes. The inferior priests, and those who possessed any 
shadow of authority, were become dissolute and abandoned to 
the highest degree. The multitude, excited by these corrupt 
examples, ran headlong into every kind of iniquity; and by their 
endless seditions, robberies, and extortions, armed against them- 
selves both the justice of God and vengeance of man. 

About the time of Christ's appearance, the Jews of that age 
concluded the period pre-determined by God to be then com- 
pleted, and that the promised Messiah would suddenly appear. 
Devout persons waited day and night for the consolation of Israel; 
and the whole nation, groaning under the Roman yoke, and 
stimulated by the desire of liberty or of vengeance, expected 
their deliverer with the most anxious impatience. 

Nor were these expectations peculiar to the Jews. By their 
dispersion among so many nations ; by their conversation with 
the learned men among the heathens ; and by the translations 
of their inspired writings into a language almost universal, the 
principles of their religion were spread all over the East. It 
became the common belief, that a Prince would arise at that 
time in Judea, who would change the face of the world, and 
extend his empire from one end of the earth to the other. 

Two religions flourished at this time in Palestine; the Jewish 
and Samaritan. The Samaritans blended the errors of Paganism 
with the doctrines of the Jews. The whole body of the people 
looked for a powerful and warlike deliverer, who, they supposed, 
would free them from the Roman authority. All considered the 
whole of religion as consisting in the rites appointed by Moses, 
and in the performance of some external acts of duty. All were 



XX 



INTRODUCTION. 



unanimous in excluding the other nations of the world from the 
hopes of eternal life. 

The learned among the Jews were divided into a great variety 
of sects. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Essenes, eclipsed 
the other denominations. 

The most celebrated of the Jewish sects was that of the 
Pharisees. It is supposed by some, that this denomination sub- 
sisted about a century and a half before the appearance of our 
Saviour. They separated themselves not only from Pagans, but 
from all such Jews as complied not with their peculiarities. 
Their separation consisted chiefly in certain distinctions respect- 
ing food and religious ceremonies. It does not appear to have 
interrupted the uniformity of religious worship, in which the 
Jews of every sect seem to have always united. 

This denomination, by their apparent sanctity of manners, had 
rendered themselves extremely popular. The multitude, for the 
most part, espoused their interests; and the great, who feared 
their artifice, were frequently obliged to court their favor. 
Hence they obtained the highest offices both in the State and 
priesthood, and had great weight both in public and private 
affairs. It appears from the frequent mention which is made by 
the evangelists of the Scribes and Pharisees in conjunction, that 
the greatest number of Jewish teachers or doctors of the law, 
(for those were expressions equivalent to scribe) were, at that 
time, of the Pharisaical sect. 

The principal doctrines of the Pharisees are as follows : That 
the oral law, which they suppose God delivered to Moses by an 
archangel on Mount Sinai, and which is preserved by tradition, 
is of equal authority, with the written law : That, by observing 
both these laws, a man may not only obtain justification with 
God, but perform meritorious works of supererogation : That 
fasting, alms-giving, ablutions, and confessions, are sufficient 
atonements for sin : That thoughts and desires are not sinful, 
unless they are carried into action. This denomination acknow- 
* ledged the immortality of the soul, future rewards and punish- 
ments, the existence of good and evil angels, and the resurrec- 
tion of the body. They maintained both the freedom of the 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxi 



will and absolute predestination, and adopted the Pythagorean 
doctrine of the transmigration of souls, excepting the notoriously 
wicked, whom they supposed consigned to eternal punishment. 

The peculiar manners of this sect are strongly marked in the 
writings of the evangelists, and confirmed by the testimony of 
the Jewish authors. They fasted the second and fifth day of the 
week, and put thorns at the bottom of their robes, that they 
might prick their legs as they walked. They lay upon boards 
covered with flint stones, and tied thick cords about their waists. 
They paid tithes as the law prescribed, and gave the thirtieth 
and fiftieth part of their fruits, adding voluntary sacrifices to 
those which were commanded. They were very exact in per- 
forming their vows. The Talmudic books mention several 
distinct classes of Pharisees ; among whom were the Truncated 
Pharisee, who, that he might appear in profound meditation, as 
if destitute of feet, scarcely lifted them from the ground; and 
the Mortar Pharisee, who, that his contemplations might not be 
disturbed, wore a deep cap in the shape of a mortar, which 
would only permit him to look upon the ground at his feet. 
Such expedients were used by this denomination to captivate the 
admiration of the vulgar; and under the appearance of singular 
piety, they disguised the most licentious manners. 

The sect of the Sadducees derived its origin and name from 
one Sadoc, who flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
about two hundred and sixty-three years before Christ. The 
chief heads of the Sadducean doctrine are as follows : All laws 
and traditions, not comprehended in the written law, are to be 
rejected as merely human inventions. Neither angels nor spirits 
have a distinct existence, separate from their corporeal vestment. 
The soul of man, therefore, expires with the body. There will 
be no resurrection of the dead, nor rewards and punishments 
after this life. Man is not subject to irresistible fate, but has 
the framing of his condition chiefly in his power. Polygamy 
ought to be practised. 

The practices of the Pharisees and Sadducees were both per- 
fectly suitable to their sentiments. The former were notorious 
hypocrites; the latter, scandalous libertines. 



XXII 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Essenes were a Jewish sect. Some suppose they took 
their rise from that dispersion of their nation, which took place 
after the Babylonian captivity. They maintained that rewards 
and punishments extended to the soul alone, and considered the 
body as a mass of malignant matter, and the prison of the immor- 
tal spirit. The greatest part of this sect considered the laws of 
Moses as an allegorical system of spiritual and mysterious truth, 
and renounced all regard to the outward letter in its explanation. 
The leading traits in the character of this sect were, that they 
were sober, abstemious, peaceable lovers of retirement, and had 
a perfect community of goods. They paid the highest regard 
to the moral precepts of the law, but neglected the ceremonial, 
excepting what regarded personal cleanliness, the observation of 
the Sabbath, and making an annual present to the temple at 
Jerusalem. They commonly lived in a state of celibacy, and 
adopted the children of others, to educate them in their own 
principles and customs. Though they were, in general, averse 
to swearing, or to requiring an oath, they bound all whom they 
initiated by the most sacred vows, to observe the duties of piety, 
justice, fidelity, and modesty; to conceal the secrets of the fra- 
ternity; to preserve the books of their instructors; and with 
great care to commemorate the names of the angels. 

Philo mentions two classes of Essenes ; one of which followed 
a practical institution. The other professed a theoretical institu- 
tion. The latter, who were called Theraputee, placed their whole 
felicity in the contemplation of the Divine nature. Detaching 
themselves entirely from secular affairs, they transferred their 
property to their relations and friends, and retired to solitary 
places, where they devoted themselves to an holy life. The 
principal society of this kind was formed near Alexandria, where 
they lived, not far from each other, in separate cottages, each of 
which had its own sacred apartments, to which the inhabitants 
retired for the purposes of devotion. 

Besides these eminent Jewish sects, there were several of 
inferior note, at the time of Christ's appearance : the Herodians, 
mentioned by the sacred writers ; and the Gaulonites, by 
Josephus. 



INTRODUCTION. 



XX111 



The Herodians derived their name from Herod the Great. 
Their distinguishing tenet appears to be, that it is lawful, when 
constrained by superiors, to comply with idolatry and with a 
false religion. Herod seems to have formed this sect on purpose 
to justify himself in this practice, who, being an Idumean by 
nation, was indeed half a Jew and half a Pagan. He, during 
his long reign, studied every artifice to ingratiate himself with 
the emperor, and to secure the favor of the principal personages 
in the court of Rome. Josephus informs us, that his ambition, 
and his entire devotion to Caesar and his court, induced him to 
depart from the usages of his country, and, in many instances, 
to violate its institutions. He built temples in the Greek taste, 
and erected statues for idolatrous worship, apologizing to the 
Jews that he was absolutely necessitated to this conduct by the 
superior powers. We find the Sadducees, who denied a future 
state, readily embraced the tenets of this party : for the same 
persons, who, in one of the gospels, are called Herodians, are, in 
another called Sadducees. 

The Gaulonites were Galileans, who derived their name from 
one Judas Theudas, a native of Gaulon in Upper Galilee, who, 
in the tenth year of Jesus Christ, excited his countrymen, the 
Galileans, and many other Jews, to take arms, and venture upon 
all extremities, rather than pay tribute to the Romans. The 
principles he instilled into his party were, not only that they 
were a free nation, and ought not to be in subjection to any 
other; but that they were the elect of God; that he alone was 
their governor; and that, therefore, they ought not to submit to 
any ordinance of man. Though Theudas was unsuccessful, and 
his party, in their very first attempt, entirely routed and dis- 
persed, yet, so deeply had he infused his own enthusiasm into 
their hearts, that they never rested, till in their own destruction, 
they involved the city and temple. 

Many of the Jews were attached to the oriental philosophy 
concerning the origin of the world. From this source the doc- 
trine of the Cabala is supposed to be derived. That considerable 
numbers of the Jews had imbibed this system, appears evident 
both from the books of the New Testament, and from the ancient 



XXIV 



INTRODUCTION. 



history of the Christian church. It is also certain that many of 
the Gnostic sects were founded by Jews. 

Whilst the learned and sensible part of the Jewish nation was 
divided into a variety of sects, the multitude was sunk into the 
most deplorable ignorance of religion, and had no conception of 
any other method of rendering themselves acceptable to God 
than by sacrifices, washings, and other external rites and cere- 
monies of the Mosaic law. Hence proceeded that dissoluteness 
of manners which prevailed among the Jews during Christ's 
ministry on earth. Hence also the divine Saviour compares the 
people to sheep without a shepherd, and their doctors to men, 
who, though deprived of sight, yet pretended to show the way 
to others. 

In taking a view of the corruptions both in doctrine and prac- 
tice, which prevailed among the Jews at the time of Christ's 
appearance, we find that the external worship of God was dis- 
figured by human inventions. Many learned men have observed 
that a great variety of rites was introduced into the service of the 
temple, of which no traces are to be found in the sacred writings. 
This was owing to those revolutions, which rendered the Jews 
more conversant than they had formerly been, with the neigh- 
boring nations. They were pleased with several of the ceremonies 
which the Greeks and Romans used in the worship of the Pagan 
deities, and did not hesitate to adopt them in the service of the 
true God, and add them as an ornament to the rites, which they 
had received by divine appointment. 

The Jews multiplied so prodigiously, that the narrow bounds 
of Palestine Were no longer sufficient to contain them. They 
poured, therefore, their increasing numbers into the neighboring 
countries with such rapidity, that, at the time of Christ's birth, 
there was scarcely a province in the empire where they were not 
found carrying on commerce and exercising other lucrative arts. 
They were defended in foreign countries against injurious treat- 
ment by the special edicts of the magistrates. This was abso- 
lutely necessary; since, in most places, the remarkable difference 
of their religion and manners from those of other nations, ex- 
posed them to the hatred and indignation of the ignorant and 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXV 



bigoted multitude. " All this/' says Dr. Mosheim, " appears to 
have been most singularly and wisely directed by the adorable 
hand of an interposing Providence, to the end, that this people, 
which was the sole depository of the true religion, and of the 
knowledge of one supreme God, being spread abroad through the 
whole earth, might be everywhere, by their example, a reproach 
to superstition, contribute in some measure to check it, and thus 
prepare the way for that yet fuller discovery of divine truth, 
which was to shine upon the world from the ministry and gospel 
of the Son of God." 

SECTION III. 

AN ACCOUNT OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS WHICH WERE 
IN YOGUE AT THE TIME OF CHRIST'S APPEARANCE. 

At the important era of Christ's appearance in the world, two 
kinds of philosophy prevailed among the civilized nations. One 
was the philosophy of the Greeks, adopted also by the Romans j 
and the other, that of the Orientals, which had a great number 
of votaries in Persia, Syria, Chaldea, Egypt, and even among 
the Jews. The former was distinguished by the simple title of 
philosophy. The latter was honored by the more pompous 
appellation of science or knowledge ; since those who adhered to 
the latter sect pretended to be the restorers of the knowledge of 
God, which was lost in the world. The followers of both these 
systems, in consequence of vehement disputes and dissensions 
about several points, subdivided themselves into a variety of sects. 
It is, however, to be observed, that all the sects of the Oriental 
philosophy deduced their various tenets from one fundamental 
principle, which they held in common ; but the Greeks were 
much divided about the first principles of science. 

Amongst the Grecian sects there were some who declaimed 
openly against religion, and denied the immortality of the soul ; 
and others, who acknowledged a Deity, and a state of future 
rewards and punishments. Of the former kind were the Epi- 
cureans and Academics ; of the latter, the Platonists and Stoics. 
3 



xxvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Epicureans derived their name from Epicurus, who was 
born in the hundred and ninth olympiad, 242 years before Christ. 
He accounted for the formation of the world in the following 
manner : A finite number of that infinite multitude of atoms, 
which, with infinite space, constitutes the universe, falling for- 
tuitously into the region of the world, were, in consequence of 
their innate motion, collected into one rude and indigested mass. 
All the various parts of nature were formed by those atoms, 
which were best fitted to produce them. The fiery particles 
formed themselves into air; and from those which subsided, the 
earth was produced. The mind or intellect was formed of par- 
ticles most subtle in their nature, and capable of the most rapid 
motion. The world is preserved by the same mechanical causes 
by which it was framed ; and from the same causes it will at last 
be dissolved. 

Epicurus admitted that there were in the universe divine 
natures. But he asserted that these happy and divine beings 
did not encumber themselves with the government of the world : 
yet, on account of their excellent nature, they are proper objects 
of reverence and worship. 

The science of physics was, in the judgment of Epicurus, 
subordinate to that of ethics; and his whole doctrine concerning 
nature was professedly adapted to rescue men from the dominion 
of troublesome passions, and lay the foundation of a tranquil and 
happy life. He taught, that man is to do everything for his own 
sake ; that he is to make his own happiness his chief end, and 
do all in his power to secure and preserve it. He considered 
pleasure as the ultimate good of mankind ; but asserts that he 
does not mean the pleasures of the luxurious, but principally the 
freedom of the body from pain, and of the mind from anguish 
and perturbation. The virtue he prescribes is resolved ultimately 
into our private advantage without regard to the excellence of 
its own nature, or of its being commanded by the Supreme Being. 

The followers of Aristotle were another famous Grecian sect. 
That philosopher was born in the first year of the ninety-ninth 
olympiad, about 384 years before the birth of Christ. 

Aristotle supposed the universe to have existed from eternity. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxvii 



He admitted, however, the existence of a deity, whom he styled 
the first mover, and whose nature, as explained by him, is some- 
thing like the principle which gives motion to a machine. It is 
a nature wholly separated from matter, immutable, and far 
superior to all other intelligent natures. The celestial sphere, 
which is the region of his residence, is also immutable; and 
residing in his first sphere, he possesses neither immensity nor 
omnipresence. Happy in the contemplation of himself, he is 
entirely regardless of human affairs. In producing motion, the 
deity acts not voluntarily, but necessarily ; not for the sake of 
other beings, but for his own pleasure. 

Nothing occurs in the writings of Aristotle which decisively 
determines whether he supposed the soul of man mortal or 
immortal. 

Respecting ethics, he taught that happiness consisted in the 
virtuous exercise of the mind, and that virtue consists in pre- 
serving that mean in all things which reason and prudence 
describe. It is the middle path between two extremes, one of 
which is vicious through excess, the other through defect. 

The Stoics were a sect of heathen philosophers, of which Zeno, 
who flourished about 350 years before Christ, was the original 
founder. They received their denomination from a place in 
which Zeno delivered his lectures, which was a portico at Athens. 
Their distinguishing tenets were as follows : That Grod is unde- 
rived, incorruptible, and eternal ; possessed of intelligence and 
goodness; the efficient cause of all the qualities and forms of 
things; and the constant preserver and governor of the world. 
That matter is also underived and eternal, and by the powerful 
energy of the Deity impressed with motion and form : That 
though God and matter subsisted from eternity, the present 
regular frame of nature had a beginning, and will have an end. 
That the element of fire will at last, by an universal conflagration, 
reduce the world to its pristine state. That at this period all 
material forms are lost in one chaotic mass, all animated nature is 
reunited to the Deity, and matter returns to its original form. 
That from this chaotic state, however, it again emerges, by the 
energy of the efficient principle; and gods and men, and all 



XXV111 



INTRODUCTION. 



forms of regulated nature, are renewed, to be dissolved and 
renewed in endless succession. That at the restoration of all 
things, the race of men will return to life. Some imagined that 
each individual would return to its former body ; while others 
supposed that after the revolution of the great year, similar souls 
would be placed in similar bodies. 

Those among the Stoics who maintained the existence of the 
soul after death, supposed it to be removed into the celestial 
regions of the gods, where it remains, till, at the general confla- 
gration, all souls, both human and divine, shall be absorbed in 
the Deity. But many imagined, that before they were admitted 
among the divinities, they must purge away their inherent vices 
and imperfections by a temporary residence in the serial regions 
between the earth and the moon, or in the moon itself. It was 
supposed that depraved and ignoble souls are agitated after death 
in the lower region of the air till the fiery parts are separated 
from the grosser, and rise, by their natural levity, to the orbit 
of the moon, where they are still further purified and refined. 

According to the doctrine of the Stoics, all things are subject 
to an irresistible and irreversible fatality : and there is a necessary 
chain of causes and effects, arising from the action of a power, 
which is itself a part of the machine it regulates, and which, 
equally with the machine, is subject to the immutable laws of 
necessity. 

The moral doctrine of the Stoics depends upon the preceding 
principles. They make virtue to consist in an acquiescence in 
the immutable laws of necessity, by which the world is governed. 
The resignation they prescribe appears to be part of their scheme 
to raise mankind to that liberty and self-sufficiency which it is 
the great end of their philosophy to procure. They assert that 
virtue is its own proper reward, and vice its own punishment; 
that all external things are indifferent; and that a wise man 
may be happy in the midst of tortures. The ultimate design of 
their philosophy was to divest human nature of all passions and 
affections; and they make the highest attainments and perfection 
of virtue to consist in a total apathy and insensibility of human 
evils. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxix 



The Platonic philosophy is denominated from Plato, who was 
born in the eighty-seventh olympiad, 426 years before the 
nativity of Jesus Christ. He founded the old academy on the 
opinions of Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Socrates; and by adding 
the information he had acquired to their discoveries, he estab- 
lished a sect of philosophers, who were esteemed more perfect 
than those who had before appeared in the world. 

The outlines of Plato's philosophical system were as follows : 
That there is one God, an eternal, immutable, and immaterial 
being, perfect in wisdom and goodness, omniscient and omnipre- 
sent. That this all-wise and perfect Being formed the universe 
out of a mass of pre-existing matter, to which he gave form and 
arrangement. That there is in matter a necessary, but blind and 
refractory force, which refits the will of the Supreme Artificer, 
so that he cannot perfectly execute his designs ; and this is the 
cause of the mixture of good and evil which is found in the 
material world. That the soul of man was derived by emanation 
from God; but that this emanation was not immediate, but 
through the intervention of the soul of the world, which was 
itself debased by some material admixture. That the relation 
which the human soul, in its original constitution, bears to 
matter, is the source of moral evil. That when God formed the 
universe, he separated from the soul of the world inferior souls, 
equal in number to the stars, and assigned to each its proper 
celestial abode. That these souls were sent down to earth to be 
imprisoned in mortal bodies ; hence proceed the depravity and 
misery to which human nature is liable. That the soul is 
immortal; and by disengaging itself from all animal passions, 
and rising above sensible objects to the contemplation of the 
world of intelligence, it may be prepared to return to its original 
habitation. That matter never suffered annihilation, but that 
the world will remain forever; but that by the action of its 
animating principle, accomplishes certain periods, within which 
everything returns to its ancient place and state. This periodical 
revolution of nature is called the Platonic or great year. 

The Platonic system makes the perfection of morality to con- 
sist in living in conformity to the will of God, the only author 
3* 



XXX 



INTRODUCTION. 



of true felicity; and teaches that our highest good consists in 
the contemplation and knowledge of the Supreme Being, whom 
he emphatically styles tavyaOov, the good. The end of this 
knowledge is to make men resemble the Deity as much as is 
compatible with human nature. This likeness consists in the 
possession and practice of all the moral virtues. 

After the death of Plato, many of his disciples deviated from 
his doctrines. His school was then divided into the old. the 
middle, and the new academy. The old academy strictly adhered 
to his tenets. The middle academy receded from his system 
without entirely deserting it. The new academy, founded by 
Carneades, an African by birth, almost entirely relinquished the 
original doctrines of Plato, and verged towards the sentiments 
which were taught by the Skeptic philosophy. 

The Skeptic or Pyrrhonic sect of philosophers derive their 
name from Pyrrho, a Grecian philosopher, who flourished at 
Peloponnesus, in the hundred and ninth olympiad. This deno- 
mination was in little esteem till the time of the Roman empe- 
rors; then it began to increase, and made a considerable figure. 

Every advance which Pyrrho made in the study of philosophy 
involved him in fresh uncertainty. Hence he left the school of 
the dogmatists, and established a school of his own on the 
principles of universal skepticism. 

On account of the similarity of the opinions of this sect and 
those of the Platonic school in the middle and new academy, 
many of the real followers of Pyrrho chose to screen themselves 
from the reproach of universal skepticism by calling themselves 
Academics. 

Pyrrho and his followers rather endeavored to demolish every 
other philosophical structure than to erect one of their own. 
They asserted nothing, but proposed positions merely by way of 
enunciation, without deciding on which side, in any disputed 
question, the truth lay, or even presuming to assert that one 
proposition was more probable than another. On the subject of 
morals the Skeptics suspended their judgment concerning the 
ground of the distinction admitted by the Stoics and others, 
between things in their nature good, evil, or indifferent. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxxi 



The chief points of difference between the Pyrrhonists and 
Academics are these : The Academics laid it down as an axiom, 
that nothing can be known with certainty; the Pyrrhonists 
maintained that even this ought not to be positively asserted. 
The Academics admitted the real existence of good and evil; 
the Pyrrhonists suspended their judgment on this point. The 
Academics, especially the followers of Carneades, allowed different 
degrees of probability in opinion; but the Skeptics rejected all 
speculative conclusions, drawn either from the testimony of the 
senses, or from reasoning ; and concluded that we can have no 
good ground for affirming or denying any proposition, or em- 
bracing any one opinion rather than another. 

The Eclectic philosophy was in a flourishing state at Alexandria 
when our Saviour was upon earth. Its founders formed the 
design of selecting from the doctrines of all former philosophers 
such opinions as seemed to approach nearest the truth, and of 
combining them into one system. They held Plato in the highest 
esteem; but they did not scruple to join with his doctrines 
whatever they thought conformable to reason in the tenets of 
other philosophers. Potamo, a Platonist, appears to have been 
the first projector of this plan. The Eclectic system was brought 
to perfection by Ammonias Saccas, who blended Christianity 
with the tenets of philosophy. 

The moral doctrine of the Alexandrian school was as follows : 
The mind of man, originally a portion of the Divine Being, 
having fallen into a state of darkness and defilement by its union 
with the bod} r , is to be gradually emancipated from the chain of 
matter, and rise by contemplation to the knowledge and vision 
of God. The end of philosophy, therefore, is the liberation of 
the soul from its corporeal imprisonment. For this purpose the 
Eclectic philosophy recommends abstinence, with other voluntary 
mortifications and religious exercises. 

In the infancy of the Alexandrian school, not a few of the 
professors of Christianity were led, by the pretensions of the 
Eclectic sect, to imagine that a coalition might, with great 
advantage, be formed between its system and that of Christianity. 
This union appeared the more desirable, as several philosophers 



XXX11 



INTRODUCTION. 



of this sect became converts to the Christian faith. The conse- 
quence was, that Pagan ideas and opinions were by degrees 
mixed with the pure and simple doctrines of the gospel. 

The Oriental philosophy was popular in several nations at the 
time of Christ's appearance. Before the commencement of the 
Christian era it was taught in the East, whence it gradually 
spread through the Alexandrian, Jewish, and Christian schools. 

The Oriental philosophers endeavored to explain the nature 
and origin of all things by the principle of emanation from an 
eternal fountain of being. The forming of the leading doctrines 
of this philosophy into a regular system has been attributed to 
Zoroaster, an ancient Persian philosopher. He adopted the 
principle generally held by the ancients, that from nothing, 
nothing can be produced. He supposed spirit and matter, light 
and darkness, to be emanations from one eternal source. The 
active and passive principles he conceived to be perpetually at 
variance ; the former tending to produce good ; the latter, evil ; 
but that, through the intervention of the Supreme Being, the 
contest would at last terminate in favor of the good principle. 
According to Zoroaster, various orders of spiritual beings, gods, 
or demons, have proceeded from the Deity, which are more or 
less perfect, as they are at a greater or less distance in the course 
of emanation from the eternal fountain of intelligence, among 
which the human soul is a particle of divine light, which will 
return to its source and partake of its immortality ; and matter 
is the last or most distant emanation from the first source of 
being, which, on account of its distance from the fountain of 
light, becomes opaque and inert, and whilst it remains in that 
state, is the cause of evil; but, being gradually refined, it will 
at length return to the fountain from whence it flowed. 

Those who professed to believe the Oriental philosophy were 
divided into three leading sects, which were subdivided into 
various factions. Some imagined two eternal principles, from 
whence all things proceeded ; the one presiding over light, the 
other over matter, and, by their perpetual conflict, explaining 
the mixture of good and evil that appears in the universe. 
Others maintained that the being which presided over matter 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXXlll 



was not an eternal principle, but a subordinate intelligence, one 
of those whom the supreme God produced from himself. They 
supposed that this being was moved by a sudden impulse to 
reduce to order the rude mass of matter which lay excluded 
from the mansions of the Deity, and also to create the human 
race. A third sect entertained the idea of a triumvirate of 
beings, in which the supreme deity was distinguished both from 
the material evil principle, and from the Creator of this sub- 
lunary world. That these divisions did really subsist, is evident 
from the history of the Christian sects which embraced this 
philosophy. 

From blending the doctrines of the Oriental philosophy with 
Christianity, the Gnostic sects, which were so numerous in the 
first centuries, derive their origin. Other denominations arose, 
which aimed to unite Judaism with Christianity. Many of the 
Pagan philosophers, who were converted to the Christian religion, 
exerted all their art and ingenuity to accommodate the doctrines 
of the gospel to their own schemes of philosophy. In each age of 
the church new systems were introduced, till, in process of time, 
we find the Christian world divided into that prodigious variety 
of sentiment which is exhibited in the following pages.* 

* For the above introduction, we are indebted to Miss Hannah Adams' 
"View of Religions." — Ed. 



I 



HISTORY OF RELIGIONS. 



BAPTISTS. 

The members of this denomination are distinguished 
from all other professing Christians, by their opinions re- 
specting the ordinance of Christian Baptism. Conceiving 
that positive institutions cannot be established by analogi- 
cal reasoning, but depend on the will of the Saviour, re- 
vealed in express precepts, and that apostolical example 
illustrative of this is the rule of duty, they differ from 
their Christian brethren with regard both to the subjects 
and the mode of baptism. 

With respect to the subjects, from the command which 
Christ gave after his resurrection, and in which baptism is 
mentioned as consequent to faith in the gospel, they con- 
ceive them to be those, and those only, who believe what 
the apostles were then enjoined to preach. 

With respect to the mode, they affirm that, instead of 
sprinkling or pouring, the person ought to be immersed in 
the water, referring to the primitive practice, and observ- 
ing that the baptizer as well as the baptized having gone 
down into the water, the latter is baptized in it, and both 
come up out of it. They say that John baptized in the 
Jordan, and that Jesus, after being baptized, came up out 

(35) 



36 



BAPTISTS. 



of it. Believers are said also to be " buried with Christ 
by baptism into death, wherein also they are risen with 
him;" and the Baptists insist that this is a doctrinal allu- 
sion incompatible with any other mode. 

But they say that their views of this institution are 
much more confirmed, and may be better understood by 
studying its nature and import. They consider it as an 
impressive emblem of that by which their sins are remitted 
or washed away, and of that on account of which the Holy 
Spirit is given to those who obey the Messiah. In other 
words, they view Christian Baptism as a figurative repre- 
sentation of that which the gospel of Christ is in testi- 
mony. To this the mind of the baptized is therefore 
naturally led, while spectators are to consider him as pro- 
fessing his faith in the gospel, and his subjection to the 
Redeemer. The Baptists, therefore, would say that none 
ought to be baptized except those who seem to believe this 
gospel; and that immersion is not properly a mode of 
baptism, but baptism itself. 

Thus the English and most other Baptists consider a 
personal profession of faith and an immersion in water as 
essential to baptism. The profession of faith is generally 
made before the congregation, at a church-meeting. On 
these occasions some have a creed, to which they expect 
the candidate to assent, and to give a circumstantial ac- 
count of his conversion ; but others require only a profes- 
sion of his faith as a Christian. The former generally 
consider baptism as an ordinance which initiates persons 
into a particular church ; and they say that, without breach 
of Christian liberty, they have a right to expect an agree- 
ment in articles of faith in their own societies. The latter 
think that baptism initiates merely into a profession of the 
Christian religion, and therefore say that they have no 
right to require an assent to their creed from such as do 



BAPTISTS. 



37 



not intend to join their communion ; and in support of 
their opinion, they quote the baptism of the eunuch, in the 
eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. 

The Baptists are divided into the General, who are Ar- 
minians, and the Particular, who are Calvinists. Some 
of both classes allow mixed communion, by which is under- 
stood, that those who have not been baptized by immersion 
on the profession of their faith (but in their infancy, which 
they themselves deem valid) may sit down at the Lord's 
table along with those who have been baptized. This has 
given rise to much controversy on the subject. 

Some of both classes of Baptists are, at the same time, 
Sabbatarians, and, with the Jews, observe the seventh day 
of the week as the Sabbath. This has been adopted by 
them, from a persuasion that all the ten commandments 
are in their nature strictly moral, and that the observance 
of the seventh day was never abrogated or repealed by our 
Saviour or his apostles. 

In church-government the Baptists differ little from the 
Independents, except that, in some of their churches, the 
Baptists have three distinct orders of ministers, who are 
separately ordained, and to the highest of whom they give 
the name of messengers, to the second that of elders, and 
to the third that of deacons. With respect to excommu- 
nication, they seem closely to follow our Saviour's direc- 
tions in the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, 
which they apply to differences between individuals : and 
if any man be guilty of scandalous immorality, they ex- 
clude him from the brotherhood or fellowship of the church. 
Like the other Protestant dissenters, the Baptists receive 
the Lord's Supper sitting at a common table, and giving 
the elements one to anothci\ 

The Baptists in Great Britain, Ireland, Holland, Ger- 
many, the United States of America, Upper Canada, &c, 
4 . 



38 



BAPTISTS. 



are divided, as has been already observed, into two distinct 
classes, or societies, the Particular or Calvinistic, and the 
General or Arminian Baptists. The former are said to be 
much more numerous than the latter. 

The father of the General Baptists was a Mr. Smith, 
who was at first a clergyman of the Church of England ; 
but resigning his living, he went over to Holland, where 
his Baptist principles were warmly opposed by Messrs. 
Ainsworth and Robinson, of whom the former was pastor 
of the Brownists, or Independents, at Amsterdam, and the 
latter of those at Leyden. As Mr. Smith did not think 
that any one at the time was duly qualified to administer 
the ordinance of baptism, he baptized himself, and hence 
was denominated a re-baptist. He afterwards adopted the 
Arminian doctrines ; and, in 1611, the General Baptists 
published a Confession of Faith, which diverges much 
further from Calvinism than those who are now called 
Arminians would approve. A considerable number of 
them have embraced Unitarianism. On this account, 
several of their ministers and churches, who disapprove of 
those principles, have, within the last fifty years, formed 
themselves into a distinct connection, called The New 
Association. The churches in this union keep up a 
friendly acquaintance in some outward things with those 
from whom they have separated ; but in things more essen- 
tial, and particularly as to the changing of ministers and 
the admission of members, they disclaim any connection. 

The father of the Baptists in America was Roger Wil- 
liams. He was born in Wales, in 1598 ; and was educated 
at Oxford, England, under the patronage and through the 
munificence of Sir Edward Coke. He came to America in 
1630, and was soon after called to the office of teacher, in 
Salem, Mass., in connection with Rev. Mr. Skelton. He 



BAPTISTS. 



39 



was banished for his opinions from Massachusetts in 1635, 
and settled in Providence in 1636. 

In 1639 the first Baptist church in the country was or- 
ganized in Providence, Rhode Island. It consisted pri- 
marily of twelve members. As the whole company were 
unbaptized, in their own estimation, never having been 
immersed, they designated one of their number, Mr. Eze- 
kiel Holliman, to baptize Mr. Williams ; who, in return, 
baptized Holliman and the other ten. " Some of our wri- 
ters," says Benedict, in his History of the Baptists, "have 
taken no little pains to apologize for this unusual transac- 
tion; but, in my opinion, it was just such a course as all 
companies of believers who wish to form a church in such 
extraordinary circumstances, should pursue. 

"Any company of Christians may commence a church 
in gospel order, by their own mutual agreement, without 
any reference to any other body ; and this church has all 
power to appoint any one of their number, whether minis- 
ter or layman, to commence anew the administration of 
gospel institutions. 

" This is the Baptist doctrine of apostolical succession, 
which they prefer to receive from good men rather than 
through the polluted channels of the Papal power. 

" In ordinary cases this is not advisable, and is but sel- 
dom done ; but in such a state of banishment and exile, or 
in any condition of a similar nature, none need to hesitate 
to follow the example of the founders of this ancient com- 
munity. 

" This church was soon joined by twelve other persons 
who came to this new settlement, and abode in harmony 
and peace. Their names are not given ; nor are we in- 
formed whether they came to them as members of Baptist 
churches from the mother country, or were baptized here 
after their arrival. According to Chandler, this church at 



40 



BAPTISTS. 



first held to particular redemption, but soon after deviated 
to the General system ; this was the main distinction be- 
tween the two bodies of Baptists, known in England as 
General and Particular ; and, in my opinion, it is fair to 
admit that this body, in early times, and for a long course 
of years afterwards, had it been in England, would have 
come under the General head." 

The same author has given the following summary state- 
ment of the progress of Baptists, and Baptist institutions, 
in the State of Rhode Island : 

" The first churches planted in this State were at Provi- 
dence and Newport: these two places were for a long time 
the two principal rallying points for the denomination in 
this small and feeble colony. In process of time, churches 
arose around these centres in different directions, and ex- 
tended down into the Narraganset country. 

" Most of the oldest churches have long since either 
become extinct, or else still maintain a nominal existence. 
Others have been remodelled and revised ; some on the 
Orthodox, others on the Free Will plan. The Old Six 
Principle order, or, as they are generally called, the Old 
Baptists, were once much more numerous and strong than 
at present ; for some cause they have not flourished as in 
early times, when they spread over most of the State. 

"The Seventh Day Baptists obtained an early and 
strong foothold in Rhode Island ; especially in Newport, 
and in the lower part of the Narraganset country. 

" In 1768 there were more Baptist churches of all kinds 
in Rhode Island, than in any of the American colonies. 
Their number was 36. But mighty changes have since 
taken place in the relative proportion of churches in the 
different States. Massachusetts then had 30, now 234; 
New York 4, now more than 800 ; Virginia had 10, now 
about 600, &c, &c. 



BAPTISTS. 



41 



" Formerly the two associations of Stonington and Gro- 
ton, in Connecticut, extended far into this State on the 
southwestern border, while old Warren spread over most 
of Massachusetts, and entered quite into New Hampshire. 
But by subsequent arrangements, the Connecticut Associa- 
tions have fallen back into their own State ; and the War- 
ren, after supplying materials for about half the present 
associations in Massachusetts, has become limited to the 
bounds of the State. The Providence Association was 
lately formed from it. These two bodies comprise at pre- 
sent all the Baptist churches in Rhode Island. 

" The Seventh Day, Six Principle, and Free Will Bap- 
tists, with those of the Christian Society, have, altogether, 
probably as many churches and members as those of the 
Associated class. 

" The old Yearly Meeting is the oldest association in 
New England, and in America, if we except the Philadel- 
phia. In the days of John Comer, it stood high in the 
Baptist connection; but its influence has greatly dimi- 
nished." 

The Associated Baptists are Congregationalists in church 
government ; and, except in the manner of administering 
the rite of baptism, and their declining to baptize infants, 
their modes of worship are substantially the same with 
Congregationalists and Presbyterians. 

Their ministry are in great numbers destitute of a clas- 
sical education, though of late years they have turned 
their attention much more than formerly to the training of 
a learned ministry. 

They have a home and foreign missionary society, both 
of which are operating with vigor and success. They have 
also organized an American and Foreign Bible Society, by 
means of which they issue a new version of the Scriptures 
containing such translations of words bearing on the Bap- 
4 * 



42 



BAPTISTS. 



tist controversy as are more favorable to their peculiar 
views than the phraseology of the received text. 

According to the American Baptist Almanac for I860, 
published in Philadelphia by the American Baptist Publi- 
cation Society, the grand total of Regular Baptists in 
America is as follows : In the United States, 590 associa- 
tions, 12,186 churches, 7,609 ordained ministers, 1,040 
licentiates ; baptized in 1858, 103,307. Total number, 
994,620. The returns for all North America, including 
the British Provinces and the West India Islands, give 607 
associations, 12,730 churches, 7,968 ordained ministers, 
1,103 licentiates, 103,807 baptized in 1858, and total num- 
ber 1,662,681. The same authority enumerates 32 Bap- 
tist colleges, 14 Baptist theological seminaries, and 47 
Baptist periodicals in the United States. 

This is high official authority, and its statements cannot 
be doubted. Allowing for the usual difference between the 
number of baptized persons and the number of persons 
composing the congregations, i. e. all worshippers, the nu- 
merical force of this denomination must be several millions. 
The American Almanac for 1859 gives the aggregate ac- 
commodations for worshippers at 3,130,878, and the total 
value of church property at $10,931,382 ; but this is un- 
doubtedly far below the truth. 

The other denominations who practise baptism by im- 
mersion, and who form less numerous bodies than that of 
the Regular Baptists, will be noticed in another part of 
this volume. 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



48 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 

The Congregationalists are a denomination of Protest- 
ants, so called from their maintaining that each particular 
church or congregation is authorized by Christ to exercise 
all the acts of ecclesiastical power and privilege within 
itself, without being subject to the jurisdiction or control 
of any bishop, synod, presbytery, or council composed of 
delegates from different associated churches. They not 
only hold that there is no scriptural institution for any 
such ecclesiastical authority, but that such churches are 
not free, by a voluntary act of their own, to resign to 
superior courts those inherent rights of self-government 
with which the Head of the Church has invested them ; 
that they cannot do this without betraying that " liberty 
wherewith Christ has made his people free," and sanction- 
ing erroneous principles of church polity ; and that what- 
ever apparent advantages may result from an extended 
association or confederation of churches, bound together 
by the bond of a common creed or confession, they are 
nevertheless greatly outweighed by the evils and dangers 
unavoidably incident to such bodies. 

The principal churches, at the present day, organized 
on the Congregational plan, are to be found among the 
Dissenters of Great Britain, and in the New England 
States, in America. They originated from the Brownists, 
or Independents; but disapproving of, and disavowing the 
name Independent, they have for the most part, since the 
days of the Rev. John Robinson, whose congregation emi- 
grated from Holland to Plymouth, and became the founders 
of the New England churches, been known by the appella- 



44 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



tion of Congregationalists. They declare themselves 
" abhorrent from such principles of independency as would 
keep them from giving an account of their matters to their 
brethren of neighboring societies who might regularly de- 
mand it of them." As their distinguishing title is predi- 
cated entirely upon the order and constitution of their 
churches, and not upon any peculiar system of doctrines 
set forth in a public standard which their ministers or 
members are required to subscribe, they are not properly 
to be considered as a religious sect ; for the principles of 
Congregational church-government are adopted by differ- 
ent sects, especially the Baptists. Indeed, the very genius 
of the congregational policy is to exclude separate sects 
and communions from the Christian world, inasmuch as it 
disclaims any symbol or formula of doctrine, or order esta- 
blishing an ecclesiastical uniformity, and admits the Bible 
alone as the great bond of unity among Christians. Yet 
the mass of the Congregational churches in New England 
are Calvinistic in sentiment, and in the preface to the Plat- 
form of Church Discipline, drawn up in 1648, and agreed 
upon by the elders and messengers assembled at Cambridge 
(Mass.), it is expressly declared that, "having perused and 
considered the Westminster Confession of Faith, lately 
published in England, they judge it (with the exception of 
the parts on church government) to be very holy, ortho- 
dox, and judicious, in all matters of faith, and do freely 
and fully consent thereunto, for the substance thereof, and 
commend it to the churches of Christ, as worthy of their 
due consideration and acceptance." 

The Cambridge Platform was accepted by the govern- 
ment and by the churches in the same year (1648). Some 
of its provisions are no longer observed, and others are of 
established authority at the present time. The Saybrook 
Platform was framed by delegates from the churches of 



CONGREGATION ALISTS. 



45 



Connecticut, who met at Saybrook in September, 1708. 
It was formed on account of some dissatisfaction with the 
Cambridge Platform, and from a desire to effect a closer 
bond of union among the churches of the colony. 

The Congregationalists are so slightly organized as a 
great body, that it is difficult to acquire precise informa- 
tion of their numbers. They are so nearly like Presby- 
terians, having the same order of public worship, and the 
same standard of doctrine — the Westminster Assembly's 
Catechism — that little remains to be said of them as a dis- 
tinct body. The officers in Congregational churches are 
ministers and deacons. Official power, strictly speaking, 
resides nowhere but in the body of the communicants. Yet 
the minister and deacons exercise an influence not much 
less than that of the session in a Presbyterian church. If 
there be any difference, the minister has more power than 
the minister of a Presbyterian church, and the deacons 
less than that of ruling elders. If clerical ambition exist 
in relation to the acquisition of power in a single congre- 
gation, it is less restrained by a mixed multitude, all pos- 
sessing equal authority, than by four or six men appointed 
to exercise a control in administering the affairs of the 
congregation. On the contrary, it cannot be doubted that 
there is more scope for clerical ambition in aiming at power 
in the controlling a large number of churches presbyterially 
connected. Still, the resemblance is so great between 
these two denominations, that Congregationalists are com- 
monly called Presbyterians by the greater proportion of 
those who have not paid close attention to the differences 
by which they are distinguished. 

Besides the Congregational churches in New England, 
there are others in the States of New York, Ohio, Michi- 
gan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and California. The whole 
number of Congregational churches in the United States 



46 



EPISCOPALIANS. 



is estimated by Dr. Baird* at 2450, of which more than 
1200 are in New England. This estimate excludes the 
Unitarians, who are nevertheless strictly Congregational- 
ists in their form of church-government. The Unitarians 
are chiefly in Massachusetts, although they have churches 
in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and 
Connecticut, and some fifteen churches in other States. 

The Congregationalists have founded in New England 8 
colleges, 5 theological seminaries, and a large number of 
high schools and academies. In missionary, and other 
benevolent institutions, they have taken a leading part. 
Of men eminent for learning, piety, and eloquence, they 
have furnished a brilliant line, extending from the time of 
their Pilgrim Fathers to the present day. 



EPISCOPALIANS; 

OR, 

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The denomination of Christians called the Protestant 
Episcopal Church had its origin in England, where it is 
called the Church of England. 

The king is the supreme head; by this authority he 
convenes and prorogues the convocations of the clergy. 
The church is governed by two archbishops and twenty- 
five bishops. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury is styled the Primate 
of all England, and to him belongs the privilege of crown- 
ing the kings and queens of England. The province of 



* Religion in America. 



EPISCOPALIANS. 



47 



Canterbury comprehends twenty-one bishoprics. In the 
province of the Archbishop of York, who is called the 
Primate of England, there are four bishopries. 

Archbishops and bishops are appointed by the king, by 
what is called a conge d'elzre, or leave to elect, which is 
sent to the dean and chapter, naming the person to be 
chosen. 

The bishop of London, as presiding over the capital, 
has the precedence of all the others. The Bishop of Dur- 
ham has certain prerogatives, as presiding over a see that 
constitutes a county palatine ; the Bishop of Winchester 
is third in dignity; the others take rank according to 
seniority of consecration. The archbishops and bishops 
(except the Bishop of Sodor and Man) have seats in the 
House of Lords, and are styled the spiritual lords. 

The archbishops have the title of grace, and most reve- 
rend father in God, by divine providence ; bishops are 
addressed by the title of lord, and right reverend father 
in God, by divine permission. The former are said to be 
enthroned, the latter installed. 

To every cathedral belong several prebendaries and a 
dean, who form the dean and chapter, or council of the 
bishop. The next order of the clergy is that of arch- 
deacons ; their number is sixty ; their office is to reform 
abuses, and to induct into benefices. 

The most numerous and laborious order of the clergy 
are the deacons, curates, vicars, and rectors. The office 
of the deacon is confined to baptism, reading in the church, 
and assisting the priest at the communion. 

A parson is one who has full possession of all the rights 
of a parish church ; if the great tithes are impropriated, 
the priest is called a vicar ; if not, a rector : a curate is 
one who is not instituted to the cure of souls, but exercises 
the spiritual office in a parish under a rector or vicar. 



48 



EPISCOPALIANS. 



The convocation of the clergy, which is the highest 
ecclesiastical court, has not been permitted by government 
to do any business since 1717, and is merely convened as 
a matter of form. The doctrines of the Church of England 
are contained in the thirty-nine articles ; the form of wor- 
ship is directed by a liturgy. 

The first steps to the establishment of the English 
Church were slow. It retained at first many of the fea- 
tures of the Roman Church, both in regard to doctrine 
and rites. 

After the parliament had declared Henry VIII. the only 
supreme head of the Church, and the convocation of the 
clergy had voted that the Bishop of Rome had no more 
jurisdiction in England than any other foreign bishop, the 
articles of faith of the new Church were declared to con- 
sist in the Scriptures and the three creeds, the Apostolic, 
the Nicene, and the Athanasian ; the real presence, the 
use of images, the invocation of saints, &c, were still 
maintained. 

Under Edward the new liturgy was composed in English, 
and took the place of the old mass ; the doctrines were 
also stated in forty-two articles. With the reign of Mary, 
the old religion was re-established ; and it was not till that 
of Elizabeth that the Church of England was finally insti- 
tuted. As no change was made inthe episcopal form of 
government, and some rites and ceremonies were retained 
which many of the Reformed considered as superstitious, 
this circumstance gave rise to many future dissensions. 

The controversy concerning the ceremonial part of 
divine worship commenced with those exiles who, in 1554, 
fled from the persecutions of Queen Mary, and took refuge 
in Germany. On the accession of Elizabeth they returned, 
and renewed the contest at home which had begun abroad. 



EPISCOPALIANS. 



49 



These were called Puritans, and at one time comprised 
many distinguished members of the English clergy. 

On the accession of James, the Puritans hoped for some 
relief; but an Episcopal hierarchy was more favorable to 
his views than the Presbyterian form of government, and 
he publicly adopted the maxim, "No bishop, no king." 

When the English divines returned from the Synod of 
Dort, the king and the majority of the Episcopal clergy 
discovered an inclination to the sentiments of Arminius, 
which have since prevailed over Calvinism among the 
English clergy. 

Under Charles I., the attempts made, through the in- 
strumentality of Laud, to reduce all the churches of Great 
Britain under the jurisdiction of bishops, and the suppres- 
sion of the opinions and institutions that were peculiar to 
Calvinism, cost the Archbishop of Canterbury his head, 
and had no little effect in imbittering the civil contest 
between the throne and the parliament. After the death 
of Laud, the parliament abolished the Episcopal govern- 
ment, and condemned everything in the ecclesiastical esta- 
blishment that was contrary to the doctrine, worship, and 
discipline of the Church of Geneva. 

As soon as Charles II. was restored to the throne, the 
ancient forms of ecclesiastical government and public wor- 
ship were restored ; and, in 1662, a public law, entitled 
the act of uniformity, was enacted, by which all who re- 
fused to observe the rites and subscribe the doctrines of 
the Church of England, were entirely excluded from its 
dominion. 

In the reign of William III., and particularly in 1689, 
the divisions among the friends of Episcopacy gave rise 
to the two parties called the high-churchmen, or non- 
jurors, and lotv-churchmen. The former maintained the 
doctrine of passive obedience, or non-resistance to the 
5 d 



50 



EPISCOPALIANS. 



sovereign under any circumstance whatever ; that the 
hereditary succession to the throne is of divine institution, 
and cannot be interrupted : that the Church is subject to 
the jurisdiction of God alone ; and, consequently, that 
certain bishops deposed by King William remained, not- 
withstanding, true bishops ; and that those who had been 
appointed in their places were rebels and schismatics, and 
all who held communion with them were guilty of rebellion 
and schism. 

The gradual progress of civil and religious liberty during 
the last one hundred and fifty years, has settled practically 
many such controversies. The great increase of the dis- 
senters in recent times (they are estimated to be more 
numerous than the members of the established Church) 
has led to new concessions in their favor ; the repeal of 
the corporation and test acts, and the Qatholic emancipa- 
tion, as it is called, are among the important events of the 
late reign. 

We have said that the doctrines of the Church of Eng- 
land are contained in the thirty-nine articles ; we are not 
ignorant that the most eminent English divines have 
doubted whether they are Calvinistic or Lutheran, that 
some have denominated them articles of peace, and that 
not a few have written in direct opposition to them. But 
they are the established confession of the English Church, 
and, as such, deserve a short analysis. The five first arti- 
cles contain a profession of faith in the Trinity; the incar- 
nation of Jesus Christ, his descent to hell, and his resur- 
rection ; the divinity of the Holy Ghost. The three 
following relate to the canon of the Scripture. The eighth 
article declares a belief in the Apostles', JSTicene, and 
Athanasian creeds. The ninth and following articles con- 
tain the doctrines of original sin, of justification by faith 
alone, of predestination, &c. The nineteenth, twentieth, 



EPISCOPALIANS. 



51 



and twenty-first declare the Church to be the assembly of 
the faithful ; that it can decide nothing except by the 
Scriptures. The twenty-second rejects the doctrine of 
purgatory, indulgences, the adoration of images, and the 
invocation of saints. The twenty-third decides that only 
those lawfully called shall preach or administer the sacra- 
ments. The twenty-fourth requires the liturgy to be in 
English. The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth declare the 
sacraments effectual signs of grace (though administered 
by evil men), by which God excites and confirms our faith. 
They are two ; baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism, 
according to the twenty-seventh article, is a sign of regene- 
ration, the seal of our adoption, by which faith is con- 
firmed and grace increased. In the Lord's Supper, ac- 
cording to article twenty-eighth, the bread is the commu- 
nion of the body of Christ, the wine the communion of 
his blood, but only through faith (art. twenty -ninth) ; and 
the communion must be administered in both kinds (art. 
thirty). The twenty-eighth article condemns the doctrine 
of transubstantiation, and the elevation and adoration of 
the host ; the thirty-first rejects the sacrifice of the mass 
as blasphemous ; the thirty-second permits the marriage 
of the clergy ; the thirty-third maintains the efficacy of 
excommunication. The remaining articles relate to the 
supremacy of the king, the condemnation of Anabap- 
tists, &c. 

In the United States, the members of the Church of 
England, or Episcopalians, form a large and respectable 
denomination. When the Revolutionary "War began, there 
were only about eighty parochial clergymen of this Church 
to the northward and eastward of Maryland; and they 
derived the greater part of their subsistence from the 
English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts. In Maryland and Virginia, the Episcopal 



52 



EPISCOPALIANS. 



Church was much more numerous, and had legal establish- 
ments for its support. The inconvenience of depending 
on the mother Church for ordination, and the want of an 
internal Episcopacy, was long severely felt by the Ameri- 
can Episcopalians. But their petitions for an Episcopate 
of their own were long resisted by their superiors in Eng- 
land ; and their opponents in the United States objected 
to the measure from an apprehension that bishops from 
England would bring with them an authority which would 
interfere with the civil institutions of this country, and be 
prejudicial to the members of other communions. After 
the United States had become independent of Great 
Britain, a new difficulty arose on the part of the English 
bishops : they could not consistently depart from their 
own stated forms of ordination, and these contained politi- 
cal tests improper for American citizens to subscribe. 
Dr. Louth, then Bishop of London, obtained an act of 
Parliament allowing him to dispense with these political 
requisitions. Before this act was passed, Dr. Seabury 
was consecrated at Aberdeen by the non-juring bishops of 
Scotland ; and, not long after, Dr. W. White, of Philadel- 
phia, Dr. Provoost, of New York, and Dr. James Madison, 
of Virginia, were consecrated by the English archbishops. 

In 1792 there were four bishops and about 200 clergy. 
In 1832 there were fifteen bishops and 583 clergy. In 
1835 the number of bishops had increased to thirty-eight, 
and the clergy to 1714, while the communicants were re- 
ported to be 105,350. In 1859 there were 1422 churches, 
with accommodations for 625,213 persons. The total 
value of church property was §11,261,970. 

Some changes in the liturgy of the American branch 
of the Episcopal Church were early made, in accommoda- 
tion to the American clergy, and the difference in the 
political condition of the two countries 



DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. 



53 



The three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, are 
retained. The churches choose their pastors, but their 
installation or induction requires the consent of the bishop 
of the diocese. The churchwardens are chosen by the 
communicants, the vestry by the parish. 

Each diocese holds an Annual Convention, composed of 
clergy and lay delegates elected by the people, in which 
the bishop presides. 

Every three years a General Convention is held, com- 
posed of the bishops, who form the House of Bishops ; and 
clerical and lay delegates from each diocese, who form the 
House of Delegates : and the Episcopal Church through- 
out the United States is governed by the canons of the 
General Convention. 



DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. 

The colony of New Amsterdam, now New York, was 
settled in 1612 by the Dutch. Missionaries and pious 
immigrants arrived here in the very beginning of the 
i colony, but it is not known at what time a church was first 
organized. The Collegiate Church is supposed to have 
been formed in 1619. The Dutch Reformed Church is by 
many years earlier than any other Presbyterian church in 
this country. It differs but slightly from the other Ameri- 
can Presbyterian churches. Unfortunately, the names 
used for its officers and ecclesiastical bodies, and the name 
of the church itself, do not impart to the English reader a 
clear view of the things represented. It should be re- 
membered, then, that the Dutch Reformed Church is no 
longer a Dutch church. Its services are all performed in 
5 * 



54 



DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. 



English, and all its modes of action are naturalized to our 
country ; so that no church among us is more perfectly 
American, or better adapted to make an effectual move- 
ment in the propagation of religion among our varied 
population. 

If its name were changed, and its dominie were called a 
minister, its consistory a session, its classis a presbytery, 
and its general synod a general assembly, there would be 
little remaining to distinguish it from the American Pres- 
byterian Church. 

From the commencement of the Dutch Reformed Church 
in this country, it was subordinate to the classis of Am- 
sterdam till 1737. In this year a movement was made to 
throw off dependence on the parent classis. This occa- 
sioned a violent contest, which was not terminated till 
1771 ; when the Rev. Dr. Livingston, having previously 
convinced the classis of Amsterdam of the desirableness 
of the measure, and having prepared the way by concili- 
ating wise men of both parties, induced the consistory of 
his church to call a convention. The convention met in 
New York in October, and resulted in a harmonious ar- 
rangement for a complete organization of the Dutch Re- 
formed Church in this country as an independent body. 
It receives the confession of faith, as adopted by the na- 
tional synod of the Council of Dort in the years 1618 and 
1619, with the Heidelberg Catechism, the Compend of the 
Christian religion, and the canons of the Council of Dort 
on the famous five points. It is strictly Calvinistic. 

The Dutch Reformed Church has a limited liturgy, 
which is allowed to be used by those who, through a defec- 
tive education or inexperience, need such helps. The only 
part which is enjoined is the reading of the Ten Com- 
mandments in the opening of the morning service, the 
form of baptism, the short prayer before the vows taken 



DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. 



55 



by parents in the baptism of infants, and the formula of 
the holy communion of the Lord's Supper. This last is 
read by the minister, while all the members carefully and 
devoutly follow him, with the book open before them. 
There is a single point in which their government differs 
from other branches of the Presbyterian Church. The 
ruling elders, instead of being elected for life, are appointed 
for two years. If acceptable to the church, they may be 
appointed again after having been out of office for one 
year. 

The government of the Dutch Reformed Church is 
Presbyterian. It is fully described in the article on 
Presbyterians. They only use a different nomenclature, in 
some respects, in speaking of ecclesiastical affairs. The 
consistory, or session, is composed of the minister, or 
bishop, ruling elders, and deacons. The pastor and elders 
meet as a spiritual court to transact the spiritual concerns, 
such as the admission of members, and the exercise of dis- 
cipline. The deacons are charged with the care of the 
poor. The consistory, including the deacons, meet as a 
board of trustees, for the transaction of the secular busi- 
ness of the church. On great occasions, such as the call- 
ing of a minister, what is termed the grand consistory is 
called together. This is composed of the acting session, 
and all who have previously belonged to that body. The 
next court is the classis, or presbytery ; the next, the par- 
ticular synod, which, like the classis, is a representative 
body. It consists of two ministers and two elders from 
each classis within its bounds. The highest court, from 
which there is no appeal, is the general synod. This is 
composed of three ministers and three elders from each 
classis of the whole church. It holds its sessions annu- 
ally, and conducts its affairs much in the same method 
with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. 



56 



GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 



The college and theological seminary at New Brunswick, 
N. J., are an honor to the Dutch Church. Amply en- 
dowed, and furnished with able professors, they exert their 
full share of influence in raising up a learned and able 
ministry. This church reports in the Minutes of the Gen- 
eral Synod for 1847 — particular synods, 2; classes, 24; 
ministers, 289; churches, 276; communicants, 32,840; 
members of congregations, 110,977. 

In the American Almanac for 1859, the Dutch Re- 
formed Church is stated to have 324 churches, accommo- 
dations for 181,986 worshippers, and church property to 
the amount of §4,096,730. 



GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 

The German Reformed Church in the United States 
dates its origin in about 1740, and was formed by immi- 
grants from Germany and Switzerland. It commenced its 
existence in this country in the eastern portion of Penn- 
sylvania, and is almost entirely confined to the German 
population. At an early period, however, congregations 
were formed in Virginia, the Carolinas, Maryland, New 
Jersey, and New York. 

The German Reformed Church consists, at this time, of 
two independent synods. They are slightly bound toge- 
ther by a triennial convention. But this convention is not 
a court of appeal, and possesses none of the power of a 
general synod. In 1810 or 1812, the Rev. Jacob William 
Dechaut was sent out as a missionary to the State of Ohio. 
He was stationed at Miamisburg, Montgomery County. 
The Rev. Messrs. Winters and Weis joined him ; and their 



GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 



CI 



labors were attended with so much success that a classis 
was organized in 1819 ; and in 1823 or 1824 the majority 
of the classes separated from the parent body, and became 
an independent judicatory, calling themselves the Synod 
of Ohio. In 1836 the classis of Western Pennsylvania 
obtained permission to unite with the Synod of Ohio, 
which now bore the title of " The Synod of Ohio and the 
adjoining States;" and by a late act, this synod, which 
had previously been subdivided into three district synods, 
received a new organization agreeably to the plan of the 
constitution of the eastern church. The western church is 
now divided into classes, and its synod is a delegated body 
composed of the representatives of the classes. 

The government of the German Reformed Church is 
strictly Presbyterian. Having no general synod, appeals 
cannot be carried so far by one court as in the Dutch Re- 
formed and American Presbyterian churches. For an 
explanation of the terms consistory, classis, etc., see the 
preceding article. 

An appeal can be taken from the consistory to the 
classis, and from the classis to the synod, whose decision 
is final. 

The German Reformed Church in this country is now 
spread over the whole of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and over 
portions of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, 
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and New York. There is a 
church in the city of New Orleans ; others formerly sub- 
sisted in New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Ken- 
tucky; and some members are still scattered over the 
several States of the Union. 

The eastern portion of the church is the original and 
parent body ; and its synod, existing before the other, 
bears the title of " The Synod of the German Reformed 



58 



GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 



Church in the United States." Its territory extends in 
Pennsylvania westward to the Alleghany Mountains; 
northward it includes portions of New York ; and on the 
south, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. It has under its 
jurisdiction ten classes, viz. : Philadelphia, Goshenhoppen, 
East Pennsylvania, Lebanon, Susquehanna, Zion, Mercers- 
burg, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. 

The doctrines of this church are Calvinistic ; that is to 
say, the Heidelberg Catechism is their symbol, though a 
large portion of the laity lean to Arminian doctrines 
touching the subject of predestination. They practise the 
rite of confirmation ; which is, however, little else than a 
ceremony admitting candidates, who give evidence of rege- 
neration, to full communion. They have a theological 
seminary founded in 1825, and a college established in 
1836; both are located in Pennsylvania, and are in a 
flourishing state. They have a Board of Foreign Missions, 
and sustain one missionary station at Broosa, in Asia 
Minor. Their foreign missionary transactions are all made 
through the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions, with which body a connection has been 
formed for that purpose. According to the published 
Minutes of 1845, the Eastern Synod then comprised 10 
classes, 155 ministers, 471 congregations, and 31,170 
communicants. The Western Synod contained 6 classes, 
72 ministers, 236 congregations, and 7,885 communicants. 
A summary of the whole force of the German Reformed 
Church in this country, then, was — 2 synods, containing 
16 classes, 227 ministers, 707 churches, and 39,055 com- 
municants. It is remarkable that such a disproportion 
should exist between the number of ministers and churches. 
This arises from a peculiar usage of intrusting several 
congregations to the charge of a single minister. 



LUTHERANS. 



59 



In the American Almanac for 1859, the German Re- 
formed Church is stated to have 327 churches, accommo- 
dations for 156,932 worshippers, and church property to 
the amount of $965,880. 



LUTHERANS. 

The Lutherans derive their name from Martin Luther, 
the celebrated reformer, who, in the beginning of the six- 
teenth century, opposed the Church of Rome with such 
great zeal and success. 

The system of faith embraced by the Lutherans was 
drawn up by Luther and Melancthon, and presented to the 
Emperor Charles V., in 1530, at the diet of Augusta or 
Augsburg, and hence called the Augustan or Augsburg 
Confession. It is divided into two parts, of which the 
former, containing twenty-one articles, was designed to 
represent, with truth and perspicuity, the religious opinions 
of the reformers ; and the latter, containing seven articles, 
is employed in pointing out and confuting the seven capi- 
tal errors which occasioned their separation from the 
Church of Rome : these were, communion in one kind, the 
forced celibacy of the clergy, private masses, auricular 
confession, legendary traditions, monastic vows, and the 
excessive power of the church. From the time of Luther 
to the present day, no change has been introduced into 
the doctrine and discipline received in this church. 

The method, however, of illustrating, enforcing, and 
defending the doctrines of Christianity, has undergone 
several changes in the Lutheran Church ; and though the 
confessions continue the same, yet some of the doctrines 



60 



LUTHERANS. 



which were warmly maintained by Luther have been, of 
late, wholly abandoned by his followers. The Lutherans 
are far from allowing that good works are in any wise 
meritorious with regard to salvation. They acknowledge, 
generally, that Christ died for all who were partakers of 
Adam's transgression ; but that those only who should be- 
lieve in him, and persevere in that faith to their lives' end, 
should be saved. The foreknowledge of God from all 
eternity of this faith is made by them the basis, or foun- 
dation, of the election or predestination of the faithful. 
They view election in the very same light as they do justi- 
fication. If the instrumental cause of the latter be faith, 
God's foreknowledge of that faith of the faithful is their 
election. As to free will, the Lutherans deny its power 
before the conversion of a sinner, and maintain that none 
are converted but by the prevailing efficacy of grace alone. 

The Lutherans acknowledge but two sacraments, that is 
to say, baptism and the Lord's Supper. They deny tran- 
substantiation, the mass, the elevation and adoration of the 
host, the ceremonies, and all that external worship which 
the Church of Rome observes with respect to the body and 
blood of Jesus Christ ; but they believe that the real pre- 
sence of the humanity of Jesus Christ is with, in, and 
under the elements of bread and wine in the holy commu- 
nion, and maintain, in vindication of their ubiquity, that 
all the perfections of Christ's divinity were communicated 
to his humanity. They reject the adoration of saints and 
relics. 

Although it be our bounden duty, they say, to imitate 
the saints, and set them before our eyes as great examples, 
yet we ought not to invoke them, nor imagine that there 
are any latent virtues in their relics, etc. They condemn 
all acts of penance and human expiations, such as solemn 
vows, pilgrimages, nine days' devotions, macerations, and 



LUTHERANS. 



61 



other works of supererogation ; that is to saj, such morti- 
fications as, by the laws of Christianity, are no ways im- 
posed upon us, etc. They reject all distinction of meats, 
and the observance of Lent, all monastic vows and con- 
vents, the celibacy of the clergy, and the performance of 
divine service in an unknown tongue ; and, in short, all 
the ceremonies practised in the Romish Church. 

Their pastors, with their several congregations, either 
meet at the parsonage, or at some convenient place near 
the church intended to be consecrated, and afterwards 
march in procession two and two, once at least, and some- 
times thrice, all round it, singing certain divine hymns or 
canticles all the way. As soon as this previous act of de- 
votion is over, they enter the church, where the service is 
opened with singing again ; after which some portion of 
the sacred Scriptures is read to them, and a sermon 
preached on the solemnity of the day. If the income, or 
revenue, of the church will admit of it, or the congrega- 
tion are able and willing to defray the expense, the super- 
intendent of their metropolis is requested to assist at the 
ceremony, to give his benediction to the church, and con- 
secrate it with some proper discourse of his own compos- 
ing ; which favor is acknowledged, not only by a handsome 
gratuity, but an elegant entertainment. 

Two divines are generally appointed for the purpose of 
ordination, who not only inquire into the real merit and 
natural qualifications of the candidates — such, for instance, 
as a proper stature, a musical voice, health and strength, 
but also into their knowledge of the learned languages, 
and their abilities to argue, on both sides, all controversial 
questions. They inquire likewise into the religious prin- 
ciples and particular tenets of the respective candidates. 
It is highly requisite and just that they should be sound 
and orthodox, that is to say, be in all respects conformable 
6 



62 



LUTHERANS. 



to the doctrines which they are intended to maintain and 
teach, and which the church they are to serve professes ; 
and that they should be fixed and unalterable during their 
establishment in that sacred function. After such due 
inquiries have been made, the candidate is ordered to 
preach before his examiners on some particular text of 
their own choosing. Upon the report of his being duly 
qualified, a church may be offered him ; however, accord- 
ing to the Saxon discipline, he is obliged, before he is ab- 
solutely declared minister of any congregation, to preach 
several times before them ; and the opinion of the people 
must afterwards be consulted, and their approbation and 
consent procured. 

The day of ordination being fixed, the candidate repairs 
to the church, where he is to be ordained in the presence 
of several ministers, ecclesiastical judges, and a numerous 
congregation of the faithful. He there makes a confession 
of his faith, either before or some time during the sermon. 
In the prayer after the sermon, the candidate is particu- 
larly taken notice of, and prayed for by name. As soon 
as the minister withdraws from the pulpit, the Veni Spi- 
ritus Sancte is immediately sung, and during the perform- 
ance the superintendent, who is primate of the Lutheran 
clergy, repairs to the altar, accompanied by six colleagues 
or coadjutors, and followed by the candidate, who falls 
down on his knees before him. Here the superintendent, 
addressing himself to his six colleagues, having first com- 
municated the candidate's request, invites them to join 
with him in prayer on his behalf ; in the next place he 
reads the formulary of election, which is accompanied with 
another prayer ; and after that, directs his discourse to his 
six coadjutors, saying, " Dearly beloved brethren in our 
Lord Jesus, I exhort you to lay your hands on this candi- 
date, who presents himself here before us in order to be 



LUTHERANS. 



63 



admitted a minister of the church of God, according to 
the ancient apostolical institution, and to concur with me 
in investing him with that sacred office." After this for- 
mal address, he lays his hands directly on the head of the 
candidate, and says to him, Sis maneasque consecratus 
Deo, which literally construed is, Be thou, and so remain 
to be, devoted to the service of God. The six colleagues 
repeat, after the superintendents, the ceremony of imposi- 
tion of hands, and make use of the same form of words ; 
after which the superintendent addresses himself to the 
person thus ordained in the terms following : " Being as- 
sembled here with the aid and assistance of the Holy 
Ghost, we have made our humble supplications to God for 
you, and hope that he will vouchsafe to hear our prayers. 
Wherefore, I ordain, confirm, and establish you, in the 
name of the Lord, pastor and spiritual instructor of the 
saints belonging to the church, etc. ; govern it in the fear 
of the Lord, and have a watchful eye over it, as a faithful 
shepherd over his flock," etc. These words are, properly 
speaking, the very essence of ordination. The superin- 
tendent, after he has pronounced this exhortation, with- 
draws from the altar, and the stated minister of the place 
approaches it, dressed in his sacerdotal vestments, to read 
the communion service, and to consecrate the bread and 
wine, which he administers to the new pastor, who receives 
it upon his knees. Some few hymns, or canticles, and the 
usual benediction, conclude the ceremony. 

At their first entrance into the church, both men and 
women put up an ejaculatory prayer, the former holding 
their hats and the latter their fans before their faces. The 
same ceremony is observed as soon as divine service is 
over. The prayer generally made use of on these occa- 
sions is the Lord's Prayer. When the congregation of the 
faithful are met in order to apply themselves to any exer- 



64 



LUTHERANS. 



cise of devotion, whether it be preaching, or reading the 
Scriptures only, or praying, it is always introduced by the 
singing of some psalms or spiritual hymns suitable to the 
occasion. 

They have two sermons at least every Sunday, especially 
if it be a solemn festival, that is to say, one in the morn- 
ing and another in the afternoon. There is a catechetical 
lecture besides, at which their probationers are always 
examined. Their burials are frequently put off, likewise, 
till Sunday, for the benefit of a prayer, or, at least, a 
funeral sermon, which the Lutherans always preach upon 
the decease of any of their members, whether young or 
old, rich or poor. Their texts are very seldom taken out 
of those books which the Lutherans and the Protestants 
call apocryphal. The last thing which we shall take notice 
of in relation to their sermons, is that of their circular 
predications, which is the term they make use of to dis- 
tinguish those sermons which their pastors are obliged to 
preach at particular times in the metropolitan church, in 
presence of the superintendent, in order that he himself 
may form a just judgment of their method, and the pro- 
gress they make in the ministerial office ; also that he may 
examine their principles, and prevent them deviating from 
the orthodox faith. 

After the sermon, the service concludes with some select 
prayers or supplications to Almighty God, thanksgivings, 
and publications. In the first, all sick persons, all women 
laboring of child or in child-bed, all that travel by land or 
by water, all persons any way afflicted or distressed in 
mind, body, or estate, are recommended to God as proper 
objects of his succor, comfort, and assistance. In Den- 
mark, all those who are drawing near to the time appointed 
for the consummation of their marriage, are likewise re- 
commended to God in the prayers of the church. In their 



LUTHERANS. 



65 



thanksgivings, those particular persons who had received 
great mercies desire to return their grateful acknowledge- 
ments to Almighty God for the same. In their publica- 
tions, timely notice was given of such matters as particu- 
larly related to the church ; that is to say, of some extra- 
ordinary acts of devotion, such as the observance of an 
ensuing solemn festival, or fast, or the like, etc. In some 
places, the public orders of the civil magistrate are read 
in the pulpit. 

The Lutherans retain the use of the altar for the cele- 
bration of the holy communion. They likewise make use 
of lighted tapers in their churches, of incense, and a 
crucifix on the altar, of the sign of the cross, and of ima- 
ges, etc. Several of their doctors acknowledge that such 
materials add a lustre and majesty to divine worship, and 
fix at the same time the attention of the people. 

The Lutherans retain the observance of several solemn 
festivals after their reformation. They keep three solemn 
days of festivity at Christmas. In some Lutheran coun- 
tries, the people go to church on the night of the nativity 
of our blessed Saviour, with lighted candles or wax tapers 
in their hands ; and the faithful, who meet in the church, 
spend the whole night there in singing, and saying their 
prayers by the light of them. Sometimes they burn such 
a large quantity of incense that the smoke of it ascends 
like a whirlwind, and their devotees may properly enough 
be said to be wrapped up in it. It is customary likewise 
in Germany to give entertainments at such times to friends 
and relations, and to send presents to each other, espe- 
cially to the young people, whom they amuse with very 
idle and romantic stories, telling them that our blessed 
Saviour descends from heaven on the night of his nativity, 
and brings with him all kinds of playthings. 

They have three holidays at Easter, and three at Whit- 
6 * e 



66 LUTHERANS. 

suntide, as well as those before mentioned at Christmas. 
These festivals have nothing peculiar in them with respect 
to the ceremonies observed at those times ; but with regard 
to some particular superstitions, they are remarkable 
enough ; as, for instance, that of the Paschal water, which 
is looked on as a sovereign remedy for sore eyes, and very 
serviceable in uniting broken limbs. This Paschal water 
is nothing more than common river water, taken up on 
Easter-day, before the rising of the sun. They have an- 
other superstitious notion with respect to their horses ; 
they imagine that the swimming them in the river on 
Easter-day, before the sun rises, preserves them from 
lameness. 

The other festivals observed by the Lutherans are New- 
Year's day, or the Circumcision, a festival not near so 
ancient as the four above mentioned ; the festival of the 
Three Kings, or, otherwise, the Epiphany; the Purifica- 
tion of the Blessed Virgin, or Candlemass ; and Lady-day, 
or the Annunciation. There is no public work or service 
devoted to the Blessed Virgin, nor are there any proces- 
sions or other ceremonies which are observed by the 
Roman Catholics on the two latter festivals. The festival 
of the Sacred Trinity is solemnized on the Sunday after 
Whit-Sunday ; that of St. John Baptist on the 24th of 
June ; and that of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin 
on the 2d of July, as it is by the Roman Catholics. To 
conclude, the festival of St. Michael the Archangel, or 
rather the ceremonies observed by the Lutherans on that 
day, are the remains only of an ancient custom, which has 
been preserved among them, although somewhat extraor- 
dinary, as the members of their communion retain no 
manner of veneration for angels. 

In 1523, Luther drew up a formulary of the mass and 
communion for the particular service of the church of Wit- 



LUTHERANS. 



67 



temberg. Without attempting to particularize the various 
parts of it, it may be observed that all the churches where 
Lutheranism prevailed were obliged entirely to conform to 
it. However, those orders were never punctually obeyed. 
Some Lutheran countries have one ritual, and some an- 
other. There is a difference, likewise, in their liturgies, 
though, as to the fundamental articles, they all agree. 

On the Sunday when the communion is to be adminis- 
tered, the minister, immediately after the sermon, prays to 
Almighty God for all those in particular who purpose to 
receive the holy communion. There is no form of prayer, 
however, for that purpose ; but the minister is at free 
liberty to say what he thinks most suitable to that solemn 
occasion. After the sermon, likewise, they sing a psalm, 
or some short hymn or hymns, adapted to that particular 
act of devotion. While they are singing, those of the 
congregation who are duly prepared for the receiving of 
the sacrament, advance towards the altar and fall down on 
their knees ; at least, so many of them as can with conve- 
nience approach it at once. As soon as the hymn is over, 
the minister says, Let us pray ; and sings, at the same 
time, the Lord's Prayer ; and when the congregation have 
said Amen, he sings the words of the institution of the 
Lord's Supper. In some places the whole congregation 
sing, with an audible voice, both the prayer and the words 
of the institution along with the minister, which is a mani- 
fest error, since the voice of the whole church, in general, 
drowns that of the celebrant, or officiating pastor. They 
have another custom, which is not, however, looked on as 
absolutely essential, and that is, to make the sign of the 
cross on the host at the time of pronouncing these words, 
This is my body ; and another on the cup, when those 
other words are repeated, viz. This is my blood, $c. 
Though these signs, after all, are only made in commemo- 



08 



LUTHERANS. 



ration of the cross of Christ, which neither add nor 
diminish, yet it has been observed that, should the minister 
neglect those signs, some feeble-minded persons would be 
offended at such omission, and imagine that the sacrament 
would thereby lose its sacred force and virtue. It is not 
only this sign of the cross made on the elements of bread 
and wine that the populace lay such a stress upon as a 
fundamental article, but they very seldom cut a loaf 
which has not the sign of a cross first made upon it with 
a knife. 

In several parts of Saxony, and, indeed, in some of 
their principal cities, when the minister consecrates the 
elements, he rings a little bell twice, in a very solemn 
manner ; and in most Lutheran churches, the pastor, be- 
fore he administers the sacrament, puts on his surplice, 
and over that a vestment with several crosses fastened on 
it, -which, however, ought not to be confounded with the 
stole worn by the Roman Catholic priests, as there is no 
manner of resemblance between them. In some places, 
the pastor, after he has read the gospel at the altar, 
throws the vestment before mentioned over his head, and 
lays it on the table. After the creed is sung, he goes into 
the pulpit and preaches in his surplice. After the sermon 
is over, he returns to the altar, and resumes his vestment. 

We shall reckon among the number of the ceremonies 
still preserved among them, that of making use of wafers 
instead of bread at the communion, on each of which there 
is the figure or impression of a crucifix. When the com- 
municant has received, he falls down on his knees before 
the altar, in order to return God thanks for his spiritual 
refreshment : in several places it is customary to congra- 
tulate each other on that joyful occasion. Two clerks, or 
two young choristers, who attend at the altar, generally 
hold a white linen napkin before the communicants, lest, 



LUTHERANS. 



69 



either through the carelessness of the pastor who adminis- 
ters the communion, or the communicant himself, some 
part of the host should accidentally fall upon the ground, 
or any part of the wine be spilt. As soon as the commu- 
nion is over, the pastor sings a verse or two of some psalm 
suitable to the occasion, with a Hallelujah, to which the 
choir answers with another. The pastor afterwards con- 
tinues to read some general thanksgivings, and the con- 
gregation, joining with the choir, answer, Amen. 

The Lutherans never administer the sacrament to in- 
fants ; but it is customary among them to carry it to those 
who are sick, or on a death-bed ; and this is the method 
observed by them on those particular occasions. In some 
places they make a kind of altar of the table which stands 
in the sick person's room ; that is to say, they cover it 
with a piece of tapestry, or clean linen cloth, and set two 
lighted candles or wax tapers upon it, and a crucifix be- 
tween them, with a paten and chalice, or utensils, or ves- 
sels appropriated to the like service. According to the 
discipline of the Lutherans, the communion ought to be 
administered in the presence of some of the party's rela- 
tions and domestics ; but if the communicant should hap- 
pen to have no such friends nor servants near him, then 
some neighbors ought to be invited to be witnesses to the 
celebration of it. The relations or friends of the sick 
person are permitted, if they think proper, to partake 
with him of that holy ordinance, and for that purpose, 
they must have notice on the previous night, or some few 
hours at least, that they may be duly prepared to join in 
that solemn act of devotion. The Lutherans do not only 
carry this, their private communion to those who are sick 
or dying, but to those persons likewise who are far ad- 
vanced in years, and incapable of attending the public 
worship. To these persons the minister who gives the 



70 



LUTHERANS. 



communion to them makes a serious exhortation, which 
may, with propriety, be called a domestic sermon, adapted 
to such private or domestic communion. 

Confession is looked on as highly necessary and expe- 
dient in all places where Lutheranism prevails. And in 
the short Lutheran catechism, there are several forms of 
confession for the peculiar assistance and direction of those 
who have not capacity sufficient of themselves to reflect 
and contemplate, as they ought, on the nature of their 
sins : such, for example, are those forms of confession 
principally intended for the spiritual improvement of mas- 
ters and servants. In the introduction to these formula- 
ries, there is a discourse by way of dialogue between the 
penitent and the minister who takes his confession, begin- 
ning with the following address: "Reverend and dear sir, 
I humbly beseech you to take my confession, and for the 
love of God to pronounce the pardon and remission of my 
sins." If the penitent be not conscious to himself of his 
being guilty of any of the sins particularly specified in the 
formularies, he must mention such others as his conscience 
shall at that time accuse him of. If he can think of none, 
which is morally impossible, let him, says the catechism, 
mention no one in particular, but receive the pardon and 
remission of his sins on making a general confession only. 
The same catechism informs us that the confessor asks the 
penitent the following question, which, beyond all doubt, 
is introduced between the confession and the absolution : 
" Do not you firmly believe that this absolution pronounced 
by me is an absolution from God himself?" After the 
penitent has answered in the affirmative, the minister adds, 
Amen, or, So be it. 

Such are some of the observances of the European 
Lutherans as described by Burder. We proceed to notice 
the American Lutherans. 



EVANGELICAL LUTHERANS. 



71 



EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. 

The earliest settlement of Lutherans in this country 
was made by emigrants from Holland to New York, soon 
after the first establishment of the Dutch in that city, 
then called New Amsterdam, which was in 1621. This 
fact, which is of some historic interest, rests upon the 
authority of the venerable patriarch of American Luther- 
anism, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. "As I was detained 
at New York," says he, in his report to Halle, "I took 
some pains to acquire correct information concerning the 
history of the Lutheran Church in that city. This small 
congregation took its rise almost at the first settlement of 
the country. Whilst the territory yet belonged to Hol- 
land, the few Low Dutch Lutherans were compelled to 
hold their worship in private ; but after it passed into the 
possession of the British, in 1664, liberty was granted 
them by all the successive governors to conduct their wor- 
ship publicly, without any obstruction. The establishment 
of Lutherans was therefore made little more than a cen- 
tury after the re-discovery of America by Columbus, in 
1492 ; within a few years of the landing of the Pilgrims 
on Plymouth Rock, 1620 ; and whilst the Thirty Years' 
"War was raging in Germany, and threatening to extermi- 
nate Protestantism from Europe." 

To this settlement succeeded that of the Swedes on the 
banks of the Delaware, in 1636. 

The third settlement of Lutherans in this country was 
that of the Germans, which gradually spread over Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the interior of New 
York and the Western States. The grant of Pennsylvania 



72 



EVANGELICAL LUTHERANS. 



was given to Penn by Charles II. in 1680 ; and from this 
date till about twenty years afterwards, many hundreds of 
families emigrated to Pennsylvania. The tide of German 
emigration, however, fairly commenced in 1710, when 
about 3000 Germans, chiefly Lutheran, oppressed by 
Romish intolerance, went from the Palatinate to England 
in 1709, and were sent by Queen Anne to New York the 
succeeding year. In 1713, one hundred and fifty families 
settled in Schoharie. 

In 1735 a settlement of Lutherans was formed in Spot- 
sylvania, as Virginia was then sometimes called, which we 
suppose to be the church in Madison County of that 
State. 

In 1739 a few Germans emigrated to Waldoborough, 
Maine, to whose number an addition of 1500 souls was 
made thirteen years afterwards. But the title to the land 
given them by General Waldo proving unsound, many left 
the colony, and its numbers have never greatly increased. 

Of these colonies, that which in the providence of God 
has most increased, and has hitherto constituted the great 
body of the Lutheran Church in this country, is that in 
the Middle States, Pennsylvania, interior New York, and 
Maryland. 

In 1742 arrived Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who has 
been justly regarded as the patriarch of the American 
Lutheran Church. Dr. Schmucker says of him, that 
" Muhlenberg came to this country with qualifications of 
the highest order. His education was of the first charac- 
ter. In addition to his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, 
he spoke English, German, Hollandish, French, Latin, and 
Swedish. But what was still more important, he was edu- 
cated in the school of Francke, and had imbibed a large 
portion of his heavenly spirit. Like Paul, he had an 



EVANGELICAL LUTHERANS. 



73 



ardent zeal for the salvation of 6 his brethren, his kinsmen 
according to the flesh.' " 

Muhlenberg was soon joined in the American field by 
other highly respectable men, of excellent education and 
of spirit like his own. The increase of ministers, however, 
was slow. When the first synod was held, in 1748, there 
were only eleven regular Lutheran ministers in the United 
States. Three years after that time the number of con- 
gregations was rated at about forty, and the Lutheran 
population in America at 60,000. 

The interests of the Lutheran Church shared alike with 
those of other religious denominations and with the coun- 
try generally in the disastrous influences of the American 
Revolution, as well as in the happy results that have fol- 
lowed the triumph which the spirit of patriotism and 
liberty then achieved. Many of the churches were de- 
stroyed throughout the land, and especially in New Eng- 
land. Zion church, the largest in Philadelphia, was occu- 
pied as an hospital by the British army in 1778, and the 
congregation for a season wholly expelled. And their 
other church, St. Michael's, which had been built in 1743, 
the year after Muhlenberg's arrival, was used by the 
enemy as a garrison church, half of every Lord's day, the 
congregation having the use of it in the afternoon. 

In 1786 the Lutheran ministry in the Middle States 
numbered twenty-four. From that time until 1820, the 
year of the formation of their General Synod, the number 
of congregations and ministers was much increased ; but, 
owing to the want of a suitable institution for their educa- 
tion, and to other causes, the proportion of men destitute 
of a learned education was also augmented. 

Prior to this era, the Church had gradually become 
divided into five or six different, distant, and unconnected 
synods. Having no regular intercourse with each other, 
7 



74 



EVANGELICAL LUTHERANS. 



these several portions became more or less estranged, and 
lost all the advantages of mutual consultation, confidence, 
and co-operation. This organization of the General Synod 
led to the most cheering results. 

The American Lutheran Church has a theological semi- 
nary and a college at Gettysburg, Pa. The seminary has 
an able faculty, at the head of which is the Rev. Samuel 
S. Schmucker, D. D. It possesses a library of 7500 
volumes, and has, since its being established in 1825, sent 
forth between one hundred and fifty and two hundred 
well-educated ministers. The college is also in a pros- 
perous condition. 

In government and discipline, the Lutheran Church in 
this country differs somewhat from the churches in Europe. 
Professor Schmucker describes its government in the fol- 
lowing language : — " The government and discipline of 
each individual church is essentially like that of our Pres- 
byterian brethren. Our synods, also, in structure and 
powers, most resemble their presbyteries, having fewer 
formalities in their proceedings, and frequently couching 
their decisions in the form of recommendations. Our 
General Synod is wholly an advisory body, resembling the 
consociations of the Congregational churches in New Eng- 
land. In addition to these regular ecclesiastical bodies, 
constituting our system of government, we have special 
conferences for the purpose of holding stated protracted 
meetings. These are subdivisions of synods, containing 
ordinarily from five to ten ministers each, who are an- 
nually to hold several protracted meetings within the 
bounds of their district. The chief object of these meet- 
ings is to awaken and convert sinners, and to edify be- 
lievers by close practical preaching. This feature mainly 
resembles the quarterly meetings of our Methodist brethren, 
and presents to pious and zealous ministers who are thirst- 



EVANGELICAL LUTHERANS. 



75 



ing for the salvation of souls, the most direct opportunity 
they can desire to glorify God and advance his scriptural 
kingdom. Yet all these meetings are to be conducted as 
the Scriptures enjoin, i decently and in order.' This sys- 
tem of government is not yet adopted by all our synods ; 
yet its general features, with perhaps a greater admixture 
of Congregationalism, substantially pervade those synods 
also, which have not yet united with the General Synod." 

In doctrine, the Lutheran Church in this country cannot 
be said to adhere strictly to any symbols. A great respect 
is maintained for the Augsburg Confession ; the Apology, 
or defence of this Confession ; the Smalcald Articles by 
Luther, and also his Catechisms. 

In her rites of worship the Lutheran Church in Europe 
employs liturgies 66 differing in minor points, but agreeing 
in essentials," similar to those of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, except in extension, being not more than one- 
third as long. In this country, a short, uniform liturgy 
has been adopted, the use of which, however, is left to the 
option and discretion of each minister, as " he may deem 
most conducive to edification." 

The following statement of the statistics of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church is copied from the " Proceedings 
of the Nineteenth Convention of the General Synod of 
the United States, assembled in Pittsburg, Pa., May, 
1859. 

" The following is the showing of the statistical table : 
Ministers, 764 ; congregations, 1,506 ; additions by adult 
baptisms, 3,308; by confirmations, 16,626, and by certifi- 
cate, 4632, making 25,676; communicants, 153,521; sun- 
day-schools, Lutheran, 680, Union, 626, teachers, 8491, 
and scholars 57,250. If we make the proper allowance 
for omissions in the reports, and the additions of the last 
winter and spring, the following will approximate the 



76 



METHODISTS. 



truth: Ministers, 800; congregations, 1,550; and this does 
not include about 300 preaching stations ; additions to the 
churches in the two years, 30,000, making 15,000 a year 
— we feel sure that this estimate falls rather below the 
truth than above it — and communicants, 160,000. Of 
course these statistics are confined to that portion of the 
Lutheran Church in this country connected with the Gene- 
ral Synod." 

We learn from good authority that the Lutherans un- 
connected with the General Synod in the United States 
amount to one-fourth of the whole number, and that they 
have several distinct synods of their own. 



METHODISTS. 

It is not generally known that the name of Methodist 
had been given long before to a religious sect in England, 
or, at least, to a party in religion which was distinguished 
by some of the same marks as are now supposed to apply 
to the Methodists. John Spence, who was librarian of 
Sion College in 1657, in a book which he published, says, 
" Where are now our Anabaptists and plain pikestaff Me- 
thodists, who esteem all flowers of rhetoric in sermons no 
better than stinking weeds?" But the denomination to 
which we here refer was founded in the year 1729, by one 
Mr. Morgan and Mr. John Wesley. In the month of 
November that year, the latter, being then fellow of Lin- 
coln College, began to spend some evenings in reading the 
Greek Testament with Charles Wesley, student, Mr. Mor- 
gan, commoner of Christ Church, and Mr. Kirkham, of 
Merton College. Not long afterwards, two or three of the 




M E V B J] O EH3 Kl W E S EE Yc 



METHODISTS. 



77 



pupils of Mr. John Wesley obtained leave to attend these 
meetings. They then began to visit the sick in different 
parts of the town, and the prisoners also, who were con- 
fined in the castle. Two years after they were joined by 
Mr. Ingham, of Queen's College, Mr. Broughton, and Mr. 
Hervey ; and in 1735 by the celebrated Mr. Whitfield, 
then in his eighteenth year. At this time their number in 
Oxford amounted to about fourteen. They obtained their 
name from the exact regularity of their lives, which gave 
occasion to a young gentleman of Christ Church to say, 
"Here is a new sect of Methodists sprung up !" alluding 
to a sect of ancient physicians who were called Methodists, 
because they reduced the whole healing art to a few com- 
mon principles, and brought it into some method and order. 

At the time that this society was formed, it is said that 
the whole kingdom of England was tending fast to infi- 
delity. "It is come," says Bishop Butler, "I know not 
how, to be taken for granted by many persons that Chris- 
tianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry; but that it 
is now at length discovered to be fictitious ; and accord- 
ingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an 
agreement among all people of discernment, and nothing 
remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth 
and ridicule, as it were, by way of reprisals for its having 
so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." There is 
every reason to believe that the Methodists were the in- 
struments of stemming this torrent. The sick and the 
poor also tasted the fruits of their labors and benevolence. 
Mr. Wesley abridged himself of all his superfluities, and 
proposed a fund for the relief of the indigent ; and so 
prosperous was the scheme, that they quickly increased 
their fund to eighty pounds per annum. This, which one 
should have thought would have been attended with praise 
instead of censure, quickly drew upon them a kind of per- 



78 



METHODISTS. 



sedition ; some of the seniors of the university began to 
interfere, and it was reported " that the college censors 
were going to blow up the godly club." They found them- 
selves, however, patronized and encouraged by some men 
eminent for their learning and virtue ; so that the society 
still continued, though they had suffered a severe loss, in 
1730, by the death of Mr. Morgan, who, it is said, was the 
founder of it. In October, 1735, John and Charles Wes- 
ley, Mr. Ingham, and Mr. Delamotte, son of a merchant 
in London, embarked for Georgia, in order to preach the 
gospel to the Indians. After their arrival they were at 
first favorably received, but in a short time lost the affec- 
tion of the people ; and, on account of some differences 
with the storekeeper, Mr. Wesley was obliged to return to 
England. Mr. Wesley, however, was soon succeeded by 
Mr. Whitfield, whose repeated labors in that part of the 
world are well known. 

After Mr. Whitfield returned from America in 1741, he 
declared his full assent to the doctrines of Calvin. Mr. 
Wesley, on the contrary, professed the Arminian doctrine, 
and had printed in favor of perfection and universal re- 
demption, and very strongly against election — a doctrine 
which Mr. Whitfield believed to be scriptural. The differ- 
ence, therefore, of sentiments between these two great 
men, caused a separation. Mr. Wesley preached in a place 
called the Foundry, where Mr. Whitfield preached but 
once, and no more. Mr. Whitfield then preached to very 
large congregations out of doors, and soon after, in con- 
nection with Mr. Cennick, and one or two more, began a 
new house in Kingswood, Gloucestershire, and established 
a school that favored Calvinistic preachers. The Method- 
ists, therefore, were now divided ; one part following Mr. 
Wesley, and the other Mr. Whitfield. 

The doctrines of the Wesleyan Methodists, according to 



METHODISTS. 



79 



their own account, are the same as the Church of England, 
as set forth in her liturgy, articles, and homilies. This, 
however, has been disputed. Mr. Wesley, in his appeal to 
men of reason and religion, thus declares his sentiments : 
"All I teach," he observes, "respects either the nature 
and condition of justification, the nature and condition of 
salvation, the nature of justifying and saving faith, or the 
Author of faith and salvation. That justification whereof 
our articles and homilies speak signifies present forgive- 
ness, and consequently acceptance with God : I believe 
the condition of this is faith : I mean not only that with- 
out faith we cannot be justified, but also that, as soon as 
any one has true faith, in that moment he is justified. 
Good works follow this faith, but cannot go before it; 
much less can sanctification, which implies a continued 
course of good works, springing from holiness of heart. 
But it is allowed that sanctification goes before our justi- 
fication at the last day, Heb. xii. 14. Repentance, and 
fruits meet for repentance, go before faith. Repentance 
absolutely must go before faith ; fruits meet for it, if there 
be opportunity. By repentance I mean conviction of sin, 
producing real desires and sincere resolutions of amend- 
ment ; by salvation, I mean not barely deliverance from 
hell, but a present deliverance from sin. Faith, in gene- 
ral, is a divine supernatural evidence, or conviction of 
things not seen, not discoverable by our bodily senses : 
justifying faith implies not only a divine evidence or con- 
viction that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto 
himself, but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died 
for my sins, that he loved me, and gave himself for me. 
And the moment a penitent sinner believes this, God par- 
dons and absolves him ; and as soon as his pardon or justi- 
fication is witnessed to him by the Holy Ghost, he is saved. 



80 



METHODISTS. 



From that time (unless he make shipwreck of the faith) 
salvation gradually increases in his soul. 

" The Author of faith and salvation is God alone. 
There is no more of power than of merit in man ; but as 
all merit is in the Son of God, in what he has done and 
suffered for us, so all power is in the Spirit of God. And, 
therefore, every man, in order to believe unto salvation, 
must receive the Holy Ghost." So far Mr. Wesley. Re- 
specting original sin, free will, the justification of men, 
good works, and works done before justification, he refers 
us to what is said on these subjects in the former part of 
the ninth, the tenth, the eleventh, the twelfth, and thir- 
teenth articles of the Church of England. One of Mr. 
Wesley's preachers bears this testimony of him and his 
sentiments : "The gospel, considered as a general plan of 
salvation, he viewed as a display of the divine perfections, 
in a way agreeable to the nature of God ; in which all the 
divine attributes harmonize, and shine forth with peculiar 
lustre. The gospel, considered as a means to attain an 
end, appeared to him to discover as great fitness in the 
means to the end as can possibly be discovered in the 
structure of natural bodies, or in the various operations of 
nature, from a view of which we draw our arguments for 
the existence of God. Man he viewed as blind, ignorant, 
wandering out of the way, with his mind estranged from 
God. He considered the gospel as a dispensation of 
mercy to men, holding forth pardon, a free pardon of sin 
to all who repent and believe in Christ Jesus. The gos- 
pel, he believed, inculcates universal holiness both in heart 
and in the conduct of life. He showed a mind well in- 
structed in the oracles of God, and well acquainted with 
human nature. He contended that the first step to be a 
Christian is to repent ; and that, till a man is convinced 
of the evil of sin, and is determined to depart from it ; 



METHODISTS. 



81 



till he is convinced that there is a beauty in holiness, and 
something truly desirable in being reconciled to God, he is 
not prepared to receive Christ. The second important and 
necessary step, he believed to be faith, agreeable to the 
order of the apostle, ' Repentance toward God, and faith 
toward our Lord Jesus Christ,' Acts xx. 20, 21. In ex- 
plaining sanctification, he accurately distinguished it from 
justification, or the pardon of sin. Justification admits 
us into a state of grace and favor with God, and lays the 
foundation of sanctification, or Christian holiness, in all its 
extent. There has been a great clamor raised against him 
because he called his view of sanctification by the word 
perfection ; but he often explained what he meant by this 
term. He meant by the word perfection, such a degree 
of the love of God, and the love of man ; such a degree 
of the love of justice, truth, holiness, and purity, as will 
remove from the heart every contrary disposition towards 
God or man ; and that this should be our state of mind in 
every situation, and in every circumstance of life. He 
maintained that God is a God of love, not to a part of his 
creatures only, but to all ; that He who is the Father of 
all, who made all, who stands in the same relation to all 
his creatures, loves them all; that He loved the world, 
and gave his Son a ransom for all without distinction of 
persons. It appeared to him, that to represent God as 
partial, as confining his love to a few, was unworthy our 
notions of the Deity. He maintained that Christ died for 
all men ; that he is to be offered to all ; that all are to be 
invited to come to him ; and that whosoever comes in the 
way which God has appointed, may partake of his bless- 
ings. He supposed that sufficient grace is given.to all, in 
that way and manner which is best adapted to influence 
the mind. He did not believe salvation was by works. So 
far was he from putting works in the place of the blood of 

F 



82 



METHODISTS. 



Christ, that he only gave them their just value : he consi- 
dered them as the fruits of a living, operative faith, and 
as the measure of our future reward ; for every man will 
be rewarded not for his works, but according to the mea- 
sure of them. He gave the whole glory of salvation to 
God from first to last. He believed that man would never 
turn to God, if God did not begin the work : he often said 
that the first approaches of grace to the mind are irresist- 
ible; that is, that a man cannot avoid being convinced 
that he is a sinner ; that God, by various means, awakens 
his conscience ; and, whether the man will or no, these 
convictions approach him." In order that we may form 
still clearer ideas respecting Mr. Wesley's opinions, we 
shall here quote a few questions and answers as laid down 
in the Minutes of Conference. Q. "In what sense is 
Adam's sin imputed to all mankind ? " A. " In Adam all 
die, i. e., 1. Our bodies then became mortal. 2. Our souls 
died, i. e., were disunited from God. And hence, 3. We 
are all born with a sinful, devilish nature ; by reason 
whereof, 4. We are children of wrath, liable to death 
eternal," Rom. v. 18; Eph. ii. 3. Q. "In what sense is 
the righteousness of Christ imputed to all mankind, or to 
believers ? " A. " We do not find it expressly affirmed in 
Scripture that God imparts the righteousness of Christ to 
any, although we do find that faith is imputed for right- 
eousness. That text, 6 As by one man's disobedience all 
men were made sinners, so by the obedience of one all 
were made righteous,' we conceive, means by the merits of 
Christ all men are cleared from the guilt of Adam's actual 
sin." Q. " Can faith be lost but through disobedience ? " 
A. " It cannot. A believer first inwardly disobeys ; in- 
clines to sin with his heart ; then his intercourse with God 
is cut off, L e. his faith is lost ; and after this he may fall 
into outward sin, being now weak, and like another man." 



METHODISTS. 



83 



Q, "What is implied in being a perfect Christian?" A. 
" The loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and with 
all our mind, and soul, and strength." Q. " Does this 
imply that all inward sin is taken away ? " A. " Without 
doubt ; or how could we be said to be saved from all our 
uneleanness f "' Ezek. xxxvi. 29. Q. "How much is al- 
lowed by our brethren who differ from us with regard to 
entire sanetification f '" A. "They grant, 1. That every 
one must be entirely sanctified in the article of death. 2. 
That till then a believer daily grows in grace, comes nearer 
and nearer to perfection. 3. That we ought to be conti- 
nually pressing after this, and to exhort all others to do 
so." Q. " What do we allow them ?" A. " We grant, 1. 
That many of those who have died in the faith, yea, the 
greater part of those we have known, were not sanctified 
throughout, not made perfect in love, till a little before 
death. 2. That the term sanctified is continually applied 
by St. Paul to all that were justified, that were true be- 
lievers. 3. That by this term alone he rarely (if ever) 
means saved from all sin. 4. That consequently it is not 
proper to use it in this sense, without adding the word 
4 wholly, entirely,' or the like. 5. That the inspired wri- 
ters almost continually speak of or to those who were just- 
ified, but very rarely either of or to those who were sanc- 
tified. 6. That it consequently behoves us to speak in 
public almost continually of the state of justification ; but 
more rarely in full and explicit terms concerning entire 
sanetification." Q. "What, then, is the point wherein we 
divide?" A. "It is this: Whether we should expect to 
be saved from all sin before the article of death." Q. "Is 
there any clear Scripture promise of this, that God will 
save us from all sin ? " A. " There is. Ps. exxx. 8: 6 He 
shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.' This is more 
largely expressed in Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 29 ; 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; 



84 



METHODISTS. 



Deut. xxx. 6 ; 1 John iii. 8 ; Eph. v. 25, 27 ; John xvii. 
20, 23; 1 Johniv. 17." 

These are the tenets of the Wesleyan Methodists, given 
in their own words, in order to prevent misrepresentation. 

The doctrine of the Calvinistic Methodists are those of 
Calvin. 

A considerable number both of the Calvinist and Ar- 
minian Methodists approve of the discipline of the Church 
of England, while many, it is said, are dissenters in prin- 
ciple. Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitfield were both brought 
up in, and paid peculiar respect to that Church. They 
did not, however, as it is well known, confine themselves 
to her laws in all respects as it related to discipline. 

Mr. Wesley having formed numerous societies in different 
parts, he, with his brother Charles, drew up certain rules, 
by which they were, and it seems in many respects still 
are, governed. They state the nature and design of a 
Methodist society in the following words : 

" Such a society is no other than a company of men 
having the form and seeking the power of godliness ; 
united in order to pray together, to receive the word of 
exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that 
they may help each other to work out their own salvation. 

" That it may the more easily be discerned whether 
they are indeed working out their own salvation, each 
society is divided into smaller companies, called classes, 
according to their respective places of abode. There are 
about twelve persons (sometimes fifteen, twenty, or even 
more) in each class ; one of whom is styled their leader. 
It is his business, 1. To see each person in his class once 
a week, at least, in order to inquire how their souls pros- 
per; to advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion 
may require ; to receive what they are willing to give to 
the poor or toward the gospel. — 2. To meet the minister 



METHODISTS. 



85 



and the stewards of the society once a week, in order to 
inform the minister of any that are sick, or of any that 
walk disorderly and will not be reproved ; to pay to the 
stewards what they have received of their several classes 
in the week preceding ; and to show their account of what 
each person has contributed. 

" There is only one condition previously required of 
those who desire admission into these societies : namely, a 
desire to flee from the wrath to come; to he saved from 
their sins : but wherever this is really fixed in the soul, it 
will be shown by its fruits. It is, therefore, expected of 
all who continue therein, that they should continue to evi- 
dence their desire of salvation. 

" First, By doing no harm ; by avoiding evil in every 
kind ; especially that which is most generally practised, 
such as the taking the name of God in vain ; the profaning 
the day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary work there- 
on, or by buying or selling ; drunkenness ; buying or sell- 
ing spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases 
of extreme necessity ; fighting, quarrelling, brawling ; 
brother going to law with brother ; returning evil for evil, 
or railing for railing ; the using many words in buying or 
selling; the buying or selling uncustomed goods; the 
giving or taking things on usury, i. e. unlawful interest. 

" Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation; particu- 
larly, speaking evil of magistrates or of ministers. 

"Doing to others as we would not they should do 
unto us. 

" Doing what we know is not for the glory of God ; as 
the putting on gold or costly apparel ; the taking such 
diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord 
Jesus. 

" The singing those songs, or reading those books, which 
do not tend to the knowledge or love of God ; softness and 
8 



86 



METHODISTS. 



needless self-indulgence ; laying up treasure upon earth ; 
borrowing without a probability of paying ; or taking up 
goods without a probability of paying for them. 

" It is expected of all who continue in these societies 
that they should continue to evidence their desire of 
salvation, 

Secondly, By doing good ; by being in every kind mer- 
ciful after their power, as they have opportunity ; doing- 
good of every possible sort, and as far as possible to all 
men : to their bodies, of the ability which God giveth ; by 
giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visit- 
ing or helping them that are sick, or in prison ; to their 
souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have 
any intercourse with ; trampling under foot that enthusi- 
astic doctrine of devils, that 'We are not to do good, 
unless our hearts be free to it.' 

" By doing good, especially to them that are of the 
household of faith, or groaning so to be ; employing them 
preferably to others ; buying one of another ; helping each 
other in business ; and so much the more, because the 
world will love its own, and them only ; by all possible 
diligence and frugality, that the gospel be not blamed ; by 
running with patience the race set before them, denying 
themselves and taking up their cross daily ; submitting to 
bear the reproach of Christ ; to be as the filth and off- 
scouring of the world, and looking that men should say all 
manner of evil of them falsely for the Lord's sake. 

" It is expected of all who desire to continue in these 
societies, that they should continue to evidence their desire 
of salvation. 

" Thirdly, By attending on all the ordinances of God : 
such are — The public worship of God ; the ministry of 
the word, either read or expounded; the supper of the 



METHODISTS. 



87 



Lord ; family and private prayer ; searching the Scrip- 
tures ; and fasting and abstinence. 

" These are the general rules of our societies, all which 
we are taught of God to observe, even in his written word : 
the only true rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith 
and practice ; and all these we know his Spirit writes on 
every truly awakened heart. If there be any among us 
who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, 
let it be made known unto them who watch over that soul, 
as they who must give an account. We will admonish 
him of the error of his ways ; we will bear with him for a 
season ; but then, if he repent not, he hath no more place 
among us : we have delivered our own souls. 

"May 1, 1743. John Wesley. 

Charles Wesley." 

In Mr. Wesley's connection, they have circuits and 
conferences, which we find were thus formed : — When the 
preachers at first went out to exhort and preach, it was by 
Mr. Wesley's permission and direction ; some from one 
part of the kingdom, and some from another; and, though 
frequently strangers to each other, and those to whom 
they were sent,, yet on his credit and sanction alone they 
were received and provided for as friends by the societies 
wherever they came. But having little or no communica- 
tion or intercourse with one another, nor any subordination 
among themselves, they must have been under the neces- 
sity of recurring to Mr. Wesley for directions how and 
where they were to labor. To remedy this inconvenience, 
he conceived the design of calling them together to an 
annual conference ; by this means he brought them into 
closer union with each other, and made them sensible of 
the utility of acting in concert and harmony. He soon 
found it necessary, also, to bring their itinerancy under 



88 



METHODISTS. 



certain regulations, and reduce it to some fixed order, both 
to prevent confusion, and for his own ease ; he therefore 
took fifteen or twenty societies, more or less, which lay 
round some principal society in those parts, and which 
were so situated that the greatest distance from one to 
another was not much more than twenty miles, and united 
them into what was called a circuit. At the yearly con- 
ference, he appointed two, three, or four preachers to one 
of these circuits, according to its extent, which at first was 
very often considerable, sometimes taking in a part of 
three or four counties. Here, and here only, were they to 
labor for one year, that is, until the next conference. One 
of the preachers on every circuit was called the assistant, 
because he assisted Mr. Wesley in superintending the 
societies and other preachers ; he took charge of the socie- 
ties within the limits assigned him ; he enforced the rules 
everywhere, and directed the labors of the preachers asso- 
ciated with him. Having received a list of the societies 
forming his circuit, he took his own station in it, gave to 
the other preachers a plan of it, and pointed out the day 
when each should be at the place fixed for him, to begin a 
progressive motion round it, in such order as the plan 
directed. They now followed one another through all the 
societies belonging to that circuit, at stated distances of 
time, all being governed by the same rules, and under- 
going the same labor. By this plan every preacher's daily 
work was appointed beforehand ; each knew, every day, 
where the others were, and each society when to expect 
the preacher, and how long he would stay with them. — It 
may be observed, however, that Mr. Wesley's design in 
calling the preachers together annually, was not merely 
for the regulation of the circuits, but also for the review 
of their doctrines and discipline, and for the examination 
of their moral conduct ; that those who were to administer 



METHODISTS. 



89 



with Mm in holy things might be thoroughly furnished 
for every good work. 

The first conference was held in June, 1744, at which 
Mr. Wesley met his brother, two or three other clergymen, 
and a few of the preachers whom he had appointed to 
come from various parts to confer with them on the affairs 
of the societies. 

"Monday, June 25," observes Mr. Wesley, "and the 
five following days, we spent in conference with our 
preachers, seriously considering by what means we might 
the most effectually save our own souls, and them that 
heard us ; and the result of our consultations we set down 
to be the rule of our future practice." 

Since that time a conference has been held annually, 
Mr. Wesley himself having presided at forty-seven. The 
subjects of their deliberations were proposed in the form 
of questions, which were amply discussed, and the ques- 
tions with the answers, agreed upon, were afterwards 
printed under the title of " Minutes of several Conversa- 
tions between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and others," commonly 
called Minutes of Conference. 

As to their preachers, the following extract from the 
above-mentioned Minutes of Conference will show us in 
what manner they are chosen and designated: Q. "How 
shall we try those who think they are moved by the Holy 
Ghost to preach?" A. "Inquire, 1. Do they know God 
as a pardoning God ? Have they the love of God abiding 
in them ? Do they desire and seek nothing but God ? 
And are they holy in all manner of conversation? 
2. Have they gifts as well as grace for the work ? Have 
they, in some tolerable degree, a clear, sound understand- 
ing ? Have they a right judgment in the things of God ? 
Have they a just conception of salvation by faith ? And 
has God given them any degree of utterance ? Do they 
8* 



90 



METHODISTS. 



speak justly, readily, clearly ? — 3. Have they fruit ? Are 
any truly convinced of sin and converted to God by their 
preaching ? 

"As long as these three marks concur in any one, we 
believe he is called of God to preach. These we receive 
as sufficient proof that he is moved thereto by the Holy 
Ghost. 

Q. "What method may we use in receiving a new 
helper?" A. U A proper time for doing this is at a con- 
ference, after solemn fasting and prayer; every person 
proposed is then to be present, and each of them may be 
asked, — 

" Have you faith in Christ ? Are you going on to per- 
fection f Do you expect to be perfected in love in this 
life ? Are you groaning after it ? Are you resolved to 
devote yourself wholly to God and to his work ? Have 
you considered the rules of a helper f Will you keep 
them for conscience' sake ? Are you determined to em- 
ploy all your time in the work of God ? Will you preach 
every morning and evening ? Will you diligently instruct 
the children in every place ? Will you visit from house to 
house ? Will you recommend fasting both by precept and 
example ? 

" We then may receive him as a probationer, by giving 
him the Minutes of the Conference, inscribed thus : — 'To 
A. B. You think it your duty to call sinners to repent- 
ance. Make full proof hereof, and we shall rejoice to 
receive you as a fellow-laborer.' Let him then read and 
carefully weigh what is contained therein, that if he has 
any doubt it may be removed." 

"To the above it may be useful to add," says Mr. Ben- 
son, " a few remarks on the method pursued in the choice 
of the itinerant preachers, as many have formed the most 
erroneous ideas on the subject, imagining they are em- 



METHODISTS. 



91 



ployed with hardly any prior preparation. 1. They are 
received as private members of the society on trial. 2. 
After a quarter of a year, if they are found deserving, 
they are admitted as proper members. 3. When their 
grace and abilities are sufficiently manifest they are ap- 
pointed leaders of classes. 4. If they then discover 
talents for more important services, they are employed to 
exhort occasionally in the smaller congregation, when the 
preachers cannot attend. 5. If approved in this line of 
duty, they are allowed to preach. 6. Out of these men 
who are called local preachers, are selected the itinerant 
preachers, who are first proposed at a quarterly meeting 
of the stewards and local preachers of the circuit ; then at 
a meeting of the travelling preachers of the district ; and 
lastly, in the conference ; and, if accepted, are nominated 
for a circuit. 7. Their characters and conduct are ex- 
amined annually in the conference ; and, if they continue 
faithful for four years of trial, they are received into full 
connection. At these conferences, also, strict inquiry is 
made into the conduct and success of every preacher, and 
those who are found deficient in abilities are no longer 
employed as itinerants ; while those whose conduct has not 
been agreeable to the Gospel, are expelled, and thereby 
deprived of all the privileges even of private members of 
the society." 

Since Mr. Wesley's death, his people have been divided ; 
but this division, it seems, respects discipline more than 
sentiment. Mr. Wesley professed a strong attachment to 
the established church of England, and exhorted the 
societies under his care to attend her service, and receive 
the Lord's supper from the regular clergy. But in the 
latter part of his time he thought proper to ordain some 
bishops and priests for America and Scotland ; but as one 
or two of the bishops have never been out of England since 



92 



METHODISTS. 



their appointment to the office, it is probable that he 
intended a regular ordination should take place when the 
state of the connection might render it necessary. During 
his life, some of the societies petitioned to have preaching 
in their own chapels in church hours, and the Lord's 
Supper administered by the travelling preachers. This 
request he generally refused, and where it could be con- 
veniently done, sent some of the clergymen who officiated 
at the New Chapel in London, to perform these solemn 
services. At the first conference after his death, which 
was held at Manchester, the preachers published a decla- 
ration, in which they said that they would " take up the 
Plan as Mr. Wesley had left it." This was by no means 
satisfactory to many of the preachers and people, who 
thought that religious liberty ought to be extended to all 
the societies which desired it. In order to favor this cause, 
so agreeable to the spirit of Christianity and the rights of 
Englishmen, several respectable preachers came forward ; 
and by the writings which they circulated through the 
connection, paved the way for a plan of pacification, by 
which it was stipulated, that in every society where a 
three-fold majority of class-leaders, stewards, and trustees 
desired it, the people should have preaching in church 
hours, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Sup- 
per administered to them. The spirit of inquiry being 
roused did not stop here ; for it appeared agreeable both 
to reason and the customs of the primitive church, that 
the people should have a voice in the temporal concerns 
of the societies, vote in the election of church-officers, and 
give their suffrages in spiritual concerns. This subject 
produced a variety of arguments on both sides of the 
question : many of the preachers and people thought that 
an annual delegation of the general stewards of the cir- 
cuits, to sit either in the conference or the district meet- 



METHODISTS. 



93 



ings, in order to assist in the disbursement of the yearly 
collection, the Kingswood School collection, and the 
preachers' fund, and in making new or revising old laws, 
would be a bond of union between the conference and 
connection at large, and do away the very idea of arbitrary 
power among the travelling preachers. In order to facili- 
tate this good work, many societies in various parts of the 
kingdom sent delegates to the conference held at Leeds in 
1797 ; they were instructed to request that the people 
might have a voice in the formation of their own laws, the 
choice of their own officers, and the distribution of their 
own property. The preachers proceeded to discuss two 
motions : Shall delegates from the societies be admitted 
into the conference ? Shall circuit stewards be admitted 
into the district meetings ? Both motions were negatived, 
and consequently all hopes of accommodation between the 
parties were given up. Several friends of religious liberty 
proposed a plan for a new itinerancy. In order that it 
might be carried into immediate effect, they formed them- 
selves into a regular meeting in Ebenezer Chapel, Mr. 
William Thorn being chosen president, and Mr. Alexander 
Kilham, secretary. The meeting proceeded to arrange 
the plan for supplying the circuits of the new connection 
with preachers, and desired the president and secretary to 
draw up the rules of the church government, in order that 
they might be circulated through the societies for their 
approbation. Accordingly, a form of church government, 
suited to an itinerant ministry, was printed by these two 
brethren, under the title of " Outlines of a Constitution 
proposed for the Examination, Amendment, and Accept- 
ance of the Members of the Methodist New Itinerancy." 
The plan was examined by select committees in the 
different circuits of the connection, and, with a few altera- 
tions, was accepted by the conference of preachers and 



94 



METHODISTS. 



delegates. The preachers and people are incorporated in 
all meetings for business, not by temporary concession, but 
by the essential principles of their constitution ; for the 
private members choose the class-leaders; the leaders' 
meeting nominates the stewards ; and the society confirms 
or rejects the nomination. The quarterly meetings are 
composed of the general stewards and representatives 
chosen by the different societies of the circuits, and the 
fourth quarterly meeting of the year appoints the preacher 
and delegate of every circuit that shall attend the general 
conference. For a further account of their principles and 
discipline, we must refer the reader to a pamphlet, entitled 
Cfeneral Rules of the United Societies of Methodists in 
the New Connection. 

The Calvinistic Methodists are not incorporated into a 
body as the Armenians are, but are chiefly under the 
direction or influence of their ministers or patrons. 

It is necessary to observe here that there are many con- 
gregations in London, and elsewhere, who, although they 
are called Methodists, yet are neither in Mr. Wesley's, 
Mr. Whitfield's, nor the new connection. Some of these 
are supplied by a variety of ministers ; and others, border- 
ing more upon the congregational plan, have a resident 
minister. The clergy of the church of England who 
strenuously preach up her doctrines and articles, are called 
Methodists. A distinct connection upon Mr. Whitfield's 
plan was formed and patronized by the late Lady Hun- 
tingdon, and which still subsists. The term Methodist, 
also, is applied by way of reproach to almost every one 
who manifests more than common concern for the interests 
of religion, and the spiritual good of mankind. 

Methodism in this country, as in Great Britain, was at 
first an arm of the Church of England, without an or- 
dained ministry, and without ordinances. It aimed chiefly 



METHODISTS. 



05 



at the revival of true religion, and the conversion of sin- 
ners to God. The political Revolution of 1776 occasioned 
a change in its relations. The preachers generally became 
dissatisfied with the previous state of things ; and some of 
them went so far as to ordain each other, and administer 
the ordinances. They were persuaded by Mr. Asbury to 
desist from these irregularities, and to refer the matter to 
Mr. "Wesley. Accordingly, in 1784, Mr. Wesley being im- 
portuned upon this subject, adopted measures for the inde- 
pendency of the Societies in the United States, which 
resulted in the establishment of 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The government is a clerical aristocracy, of the episco- 
pal order. The ministry hold the legislative, executive, 
and judicative departments in their own hands. The right 
of lay representation is denied. The General Conference, 
which meets quadrennially, has full powers to revise any 
part of the Discipline, and make any new rules not pro- 
hibited by the restrictive articles. But even these, except 
the first relating to doctrine, may be changed by the re- 
commendation of three-fourths of the annual conferences ; 
and so the whole system of ecclesiastical polity and usages 
can be altered and modified at the pleasure of the ministry 
who compose these bodies. 

The officers of the church are class-leaders, stewards, 
trustees, preachers in charge, presiding elders, and bishops, 
whose duties and powers are defined in the Book of Dis- 
cipline. 

Three orders in the ministry — bishops, elders, and dea- 
cons — are recognized. Mr. Wesley, being convinced by 
King's account of the primitive Christian Church, that 
elders and bishops were the same office, asserted his right 
as an elder to ordain others to administer the ordinances. 



96 



METHODISTS. 



Accordingly, on the 2d of September, 1784, assisted by 
others, he set apart Thomas Coke, LL.D., a presbyter of 
the Church of England, as superintendent of the contem- 
plated Methodist churches, and ordained Richard What- 
coat and Thomas Vasey elders. Dr. Coke and the two 
elders immediately sailed for this country, and submitted 
the plan of an Episcopal church to a conference of thirteen 
preachers purposely convened in Baltimore, December 25, 
1784, for their adoption. The plan was approved. Dr. 
Coke was recognized as superintendent, jointly with Mr. 
Asbury ; who, having been first ordained deacon, and then 
elder, was consecrated to the same office. In a short time 
after, the title of superintendent was substituted by that 
of bishop, and the validity of the Episcopal ordination 
acknowledged. The bishops superintend the temporal and 
spiritual affairs of the church, preside in all the general 
and annual conferences, consecrate to orders, and appoint 
the preachers to their several circuits and stations. 

The periodical change of the preachers from one place 
to another, termed the itinerancy, is strictly adhered to. 
The houses of worship are generally built plain, and with 
free seats. The means of grace and usages common to 
the whole Methodist family, are maintained. 

The General Conference has under its control an im- 
mense Book Concern in New York, and a branch in Cin- 
cinnati, from which are issued a great variety of excellent 
publications on theological, historical, scientific, and philo- 
sophical subjects ; commentaries on the Scriptures, a quar- 
terly review, a monthly repository, and several weekly 
religious journals, Sunday-school books, and tracts, having 
an extensive circulation. 

They have an efficient Sunday-School Union of their 
own, industriously engaged in training up the youth in the 
knowledge of the Scriptures, and the practice of piety and 



METHODISTS. 



97 



virtue. Not less than twenty-four collegiate institutions, 
and a large number of academies, are under their control 
and patronage, and a laudable attention is given to the 
subject of education. 

In 1784, there were 83 preachers, and 14,988 members; 
in 1804, 400 preachers, and 113,134 members ; in 1824, 
1272 preachers, and 328,523 members; in 1847, 4678 
preachers, and nearly 1,100,000 members, including about 
140,000 colored persons. 

They have also a Missionary Society, which has in its 
Domestic Missions 289 missionaries, 214 assistants, and 
21,902 members ; and in its Foreign Missions 47 mission- 
aries, 102 assistants, and 2,974 members. 

A schism took place on the subject of slavery in the 
General Conference of 1844, by which the church is un- 
happily divided into two sections, known as the Methodist 
Episcopal Church North, and the Methodist Episcopal 
Church South. An angry and exciting controversy has 
been the result, and the disputes are not yet settled. The 
Northern division contains 956,555 members, and 1432 
preachers; the Southern, over 639,164 members, and 1155 
preachers. 

Many of the ministers and members of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church have from time to time manifested their 
dissatisfaction with the government, and made efforts to 
effect a reform in her ecclesiastical polity. These efforts 
have generally been suppressed by those in power, and the 
reformers either expelled or forced to withdraw from the 
church. Hence the origin of several bodies of seceding 
Methodists. 

In 1792, a secession took place in Virginia, headed by 
James O'Kelly, a presiding elder, who objected to the 
absolute power of the bishops in appointing the preachers, 
and contended for an appeal to the Conference. They 
9 g 



98 



METHODISTS. 



took the name of " Republican Methodists," though 
better known as O'Kelleyites. Their system of church 
polity was liberal, and for a time succeeded well ; but in a 
few years they began to decline, and finally amalgamated 
with a branch of Baptists known as Christians. 

Another small secession took place in Vermont, A. D. 
1804, which resulted in the formation of 

THE REFORMED METHODIST CHURCH. 

The government established by this branch is essentially 
Congregational, all power being in the churches. To the 
annual and general conferences are delegated power to 
transact business of a general character, for which they 
are held strictly accountable to the churches. The 
churches select their own ministers, and stipulate with 
them in respect to time and salary. In the beginning the 
churches ordained their own ministers, but subsequently 
lay ordination was discontinued. In the fall of 1841 an 
association was formed between the Reformed Methodists, 
Society Methodists, and several churches of Wesleyan 
Methodists, for mutual aid. And after the organization 
of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1843, preliminary 
steps were taken with a view to the union of the two 
bodies. At that time they had 5 conferences, about 50 
ordained preachers, and 3000 members. At present, 
1860, they have 12,000 members. 

In 1820, a third secession from the old connection in 
New York took the name of 

THE METHODIST SOCIETY. 

They adopted the representative form of government. 
It required a majority of laymen in their conferences to 
form any rules for the government of the churches. The 
preachers remain in the same charge as long as they can 



METHODISTS. 



99 



agree -with the churches. Prosperity attended them for a 
few years ; but most of their ministers and members united 
with the Methodist Protestant Church. The most promi- 
nent minister of the society is William M. Stilwell, pastor 
of the church in New York. No statistics have been fur- 
nished, from which to ascertain the number of their mem- 
bership. They probably do not exceed 1000. 

In 1821, an animated discussion of the principles of 
church polity was introduced into a periodical entitled the 
Wesleyan Repository, edited and published by William S. 
Stockton, a layman of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Trenton, N. J. It attracted general attention, and conti- 
nued to spread as a little leaven through the whole lump. 
Memorials praying for lay representation were addressed 
to the General Conference of 1824. Union societies were 
formed for the purpose of concentrating strength. These 
measures alarmed the powers that be, and the work of ex- 
pulsion commenced ; secession followed. A convention of 
reformers was held. The General Conference of 1828 
denied the right of lay representation, and refused redress. 
All hope of reform fled. The expelled and their friends 
organized churches, known as Associated Methodists ; 
and in 1830 a General Convention was held in Baltimore, 
which formed a Constitution and Discipline, adopting as 
the name of the association, 

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 

Thirteen annual conferences were represented in the 
convention. Episcopacy was rejected as a spurious order, 
and ministerial parity asserted. The elementary principles 
of the government acknowledge the individuality of the 
local assemblies as churches of Christ — the Lord Jesus as 
the only Head of the Church — the Word of God the only 
rule of faith and practice — and private judgment as the 



100 



METHODISTS. 



right of man. They secure the freedom of speech and 
p ress — protect church membership, and define the origin 
of power. 

The constitution recognises the mutual rights of minis- 
ters and laymen, and grants an equal representation to 
both. The doctrines taught — the means of grace — mode 
of worship and usages common to Methodists, are retained. 
The Church has been steadily progressing ever since ; and, 
at present, is extended over the whole of the United States. 
There are 30 annual conferences, about 1500 ministers, 
and about 80,000 members. 

In 1843, a convention of seceders from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and other Methodist societies opposed 
to slavery, was held in Utica, N. Y., and founded 

THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH. 
They adopted the same principles of church government 
held by the Methodist Protestants, but abjure all connec- 
tion with slavery and slaveholders. The distinguishing 
feature of the association is its anti-slavery character. 
They have been strengthened by secessions from all the 
other Methodist churches, and now number 10 annual con- 
ferences, 500 ministers (of whom 150 are travelling preach- 
ers), and 20,000 members, confined to the free States. 

THE EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION, 
or Albrights, are in fact German Methodists, as they are 
familiarly called. The first society was organized in 1800, 
under their leader, Jacob Albright. In 1803 he was elected 
presiding elder, and ordained by the other preachers, and 
ecclesiastical regulations adopted. Their bishops, so called, 
are elected quadrennially. They have hitherto confined 
their labors to the German population chiefly. They have 
5 annual conferences, about 300 ministers, and 20,000 
members. 



METHODISTS. 



101 



THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS 

have a number of societies in this country, planted by emi- 
grants from England. They have (1859) 116,216 members, 
and 11,142 preachers. 

CONGREGATIONAL, OR INDEPENDENT METHODISTS. 
Churches having no connection with any ecclesiastical 
body exist in many places. A very respectable association 
of such might be formed, but at present they are not gene- 
rally known beyond the localities in which they are found. It 
is believed there are several thousand members of this class. 

Besides the above, there are several distinct associations 
of colored Methodists. In 1816, a number of colored per- 
sons finding their connection with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church subjected them to serious inconveniences, assembled 
in Philadelphia, and organized 

THE ATRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
They copied after the Methodist Episcopal Church ; in- 
stituted a clerical aristocracy ; and consecrated their leader, 
Richard Allen, bishop, — " fully satisfied with the validity 
of his episcopal ordination." They have 6 annual confer- 
ences, about 300 ministers, and 20,000 members. 

THE COLORED M. EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA 

was organized by a body of seceders from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in New York, October, 25, 1820. This 
church is not strictly episcopal. Their bishops are styled 
superintendents, and elected quadrennially, and hold the 
office four years. They have 75 travelling preachers, and 
5000 members. 

Another small body called Union Methodists, and se- 
veral congregational churches of colored persons, amount- 
ing in all to several thousand members, exist ; but of their 
peculiar views little is known. 
9* 



102 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND.* 

The conversion of the Scots to the Christian faith began 
through the ministry of Paladius, about the year 430, and 
from the first establishment of Christianity in that country 
till the Reformation in the reign of Mary, mother of James I. 
and of Mary I. of England, their church government was 
episcopacy ; but the Presbyterian discipline was not finally 
established in Scotland, until the reign of King William 
and Mary, A. d. 1689, when episcopacy was totally abo- 
lished. The Westminster Confession of Faith was then 
received as the standard of the national creed ; which all 
ministers, and principals and professors in universities, are 
obliged to subscribe as the confession of their faith, before 
receiving induction into office. 

The Church of Scotland is remarkable for its uncommon 
simplicity of worship ; it possesses no liturgy, no altar, no 
instrumental music, no surplice, no fixed canonical vestment 
of any kind. It condemns the worship paid to saints, and 
observes no festival days. Its ministers enjoy a parity of 
rank and of authority; it enforces that all ministers, being 
ambassadors of Christ, are equal in commission ; that there 
is no order in the church, as established by the Saviour, 
superior to presbyters; and that bishop and presbyter, 
though different words, are of the same import. It acknow- 
ledges no earthly head : its judicatories are quite distinct 
from, and independent of, any civil judicatory ; insomuch, 
indeed, that the decisions of the one are often contrary to 
those of the other, yet both remain unaffected and unal- 

* The word Kirk is of Saxon origin, and signifies Church ; or, 
according to others, it is a contraction of the Greek word meaning 
the House of God. 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 



103 



tered. When, for example, a clergyman has been pre- 
sented to a parish by a patron, and induction and ordination 
have followed on that presentation, if afterwards it be found 
that the patron, who had given the presentation, has not 
that right, and that it belongs to another, the clergyman 
may be ejected as to all the temporalities of the office ; but 
quoad sacra, he may continue minister of the parish, and 
exercise all the sacred functions : and though a new pre- 
sentee may obtain a right to the civil endowments of the 
benefice, he can perform none of the sacred duties, while 
the other chooses to avail himself of his privilege. 

There are four ecclesiastical judicatories, — namely, the 
Kirk Session, the Presbytery, the Synod, and the General 
Assembly, from each of which there is a power of appeal 
to the other ; but the decision of the General Assembly is 
supreme. 

The lowest court is the Kirk Session, w r hich is composed 
of the minister of the parish, who is the moderator or pre- 
sident of it, and a number of the most grave and respec- 
table laymen, members of the congregation. Their number 
varies in different parishes, five or six being about the 
average number ; and their services are entirely gratuitous. 
They are something like churchwardens in England, only 
they have a spiritual jurisdiction, as it is a part of their 
duty to visit the sick, &c. The Kirk Session takes cogni- 
sance of cases of scandal, such as fornication, Sabbath- 
breaking, profane swearing. It also manages the funds 
of. the poor, a duty in which it formerly was assisted by 
deacons, a class of men inferior to elders, as they had no 
spiritual jurisdiction ; but not being found necessary, they 
are consequently disused. 

The Presbytery, which is the court next in dignity, is 
composed of the ministers of a certain district, with an 
elder from each parish. The number of presbyteries is 



104 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 



seventy-eight. Their chief duty consists in the manage- 
ment of such matters as concern the church within their 
respective bounds. But they may originate any matter, 
and bring it under the view of the Synod or General As- 
sembly. They have also the superintendence of education 
within their bounds, such as the induction of teachers, and 
the examination of schools. 

The Synod is the next intermediate court. There are 
fifteen synods, each consisting of the clergymen of a cer- 
tain number of presbyteries, with elders, as in presbyteries. 
Presbyteries meet generally once a month ; synods twice 
a year, though some remote synods, such as that of Argyle, 
only once. 

The General Assembly is the last and supreme court, 
and meets yearly in the month of May, in Edinburgh, and 
continues its sittings for twelve days. The king presides 
by his representative, who is always a nobleman, and is 
denominated the Lord High Commissioner. The General 
Assembly is a representative court, consisting of 200 mem- 
bers representing presbyteries, and 156 elders representing 
burghs or presbyteries, and five ministers or elders repre- 
senting universities, — making altogether 361 members. 
They choose a moderator or president, out of their own 
number, distinct from, the Royal Commissioner, the duty 
of the latter consisting merely in convening and dissolving 
the court, and in forming the medium of communication 
between it and the throne. The moderator is now always 
a clergyman, though previously to 1688, laymen sometimes 
held that office. 

The duties of the Scotch clergy are numerous and labo- 
rious. They officiate regularly in the public worship of 
God ; and in general, they must go through this duty twice 
every Sunday (exclusively of other occasional appearances), 
delivering every Sunday a lecture and a sermon, with 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 



105 



prayers. It is also expected, throughout Scotland, that the 
prayers and discourses shall be of the minister's own com- 
position ; and the prayers, in all cases, and the discourses, 
in most instances, are delivered without the use of papers. 
They are expected to perform the alternate duties of exam- 
ining their people from the Scriptures and catechisms of 
the church, and of visiting them from house to house, with 
prayers and exhortations. This is done commonly once in 
the year, being omitted only in those cases in which the 
ministers deem it impracticable, or not acceptable, or at 
least not necessary. The charge of the poor devolves, in 
a very particular manner, on the clergy, and in them also 
is vested the superintendence of all schools within their 
bounds. 

Baptism in this church is practised by none but ministers, 
who do it by sprinkling ; and whether performed in private 
or in public, it is almost always preceded by a sermon. 

The Lord's Supper is not administered so frequently in 
Scotland as in some other places. Some time before this 
sacrament is dispensed, it is announced from the pulpit. 
The week before, the Kirk Session meets, and draws up a 
list of all the communicants in the parish, according to the 
minister's examination-book, and the testimony of the 
elders and deacons. According to this list, tickets are 
delivered to each communicant, if desired, and the ministers 
and elders also give tickets to strangers who bring sufficient 
testimonials. None are allowed to communicate without 
such tickets, which are produced at the table. Those who 
never received are instructed by the minister, and by 
themselves in the nature of the sacraments, and taught 
what is the proper preparation thereunto. The Wednes- 
day or Thursday before, there is a solemn fast, and on the 
Saturday there are two preparatory sermons. On Sunday 
morning, after singing and prayer as usual, the minister 



106 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 



of the parish preaches a suitable sermon ; and when the 
ordinary worship is ended, he in the name of Jesus Christ 
forbids the unworthy to approach, and invites the penitent 
to come and receive the sacrament. Then he goes into 
the body of the church, where one or two tables, according 
to its width, are placed, reaching from one end to the 
other, covered with a white linen cloth, and seats on both 
sides for the communicants. The minister places himself 
at the end or middle of the table. After a short discourse, 
he reads the institution, and blesses the elements ; then he 
breaks the bread, and distributes it and the wine to those 
that are next him, who transmit them to their neighbors ; 
the elders and deacon attending to serve, and see that the 
whole is performed with decency and order. While these 
communicate, the minister discourses on the nature of the 
sacrament ; and the whole is concluded with singing and 
prayer. The minister then returns to the pulpit, and 
preaches a sermon. The morning-service ended, the con- 
gregation are dismissed for an hour ; after which the usual 
afternoon worship is performed. On the Monday morning, 
there is public worship, with two sermons ; and these, 
properly speaking, close the communion-service. No 
private communions are allowed in Scotland. 

Marriage is solemnized nearly after the manner of the 
Church of England, with the exception of the ring, which 
is deemed a great relic of "popery." By the laws of 
Scotland, the marriage-knot may be tied without any 
ceremony of a religious nature : a simple promise in the 
presence of witnesses, or a known previous cohabitation, 
being sufficient to bind the obligation. The most ridicu- 
lous, often immoral, and almost always injurious practice, 
of marrying at G-r etna- Green was, till lately, in use; a 
person said to have been a blacksmith performed the cere- 
mony at Gretna according to the rites of the church. 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 



107 



The Funeral ceremony is performed in total silence. The 
corpse is carried to the grave, and there interred without 
a word being spoken on the occasion. 

Dr. Evans, in his usual liberal strain, gives the follow- 
ing account of the Seceders : — 

" Dissenters from the kirk, or church of Scotland, call 
themselves Seceders; for, as the term Dissenter comes 
from the Latin word dissentio, to differ, so the appellation 
Seceder is derived from another Latin word, secedo, to 
separate or to withdraw from any body of men with which 
we may have been united. The secession arose from 
various circumstances, which were conceived to be great 
defections from the established church of Scotland. The 
Seceders are rigid Calvinists, rather austere in their 
manners, and severe in their discipline. Through a dif- 
ference as to civil matters, they are broken down into 
Burghers and Anti-burghers. Of these two classes the 
latter are the most confined in their sentiments, and asso- 
ciate therefore the least with any other body of Christians. 
The Seceders originated under two brothers, Ralph and 
Ebenezer Erskine, of Stirling, about the year 1730. It 
is worthy of observation, that the Rev. George Whitfield, 
in one of his visits to Scotland, was solemnly reprobated 
by the Seceders, because he refused to confine his itinerant 
labors wholly to them. The reason assigned for this 
monopolization was, that they were exclusively God's 
people. Mr. Whitfield smartly replied, that they had, 
therefore, the less need of his services ; for his aim was to 
turn sinners from the error and wickedness of their ways, 
by preaching among them glad tidings of great joy. 

" The Burgess' oath, concerning which the Seceders 
differed, is administered in several of the royal boroughs 
of Scotland, and runs thus : 6 1 protest before God and 
your lordships, that I profess and allow with my heart the 



108 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 



true religion presently professed within this realm, and 
authorized by the laws thereof; I shall abide thereat, and 
defend the same to my life's end, renouncing the Roman 
religion called papistry.' The Messrs. Erskine and others 
maintained there was no inconsistency in Seceders taking 
this oath, because the established religion was still the 
true religion, in spite of the faults attaching to it, and 
hence were called Burghers. Messrs. MoncriefF and others 
thought the swearing to the religion, as professed and 
authorized, was approving the corruptions, therefore the 
oath was inconsistent and not to be taken ; hence Anti- 
burghers. The Kirk of Scotland, both parties say, still 
perseveres in a course of defection from her professed 
principles, and therefore the secession continues, and is 
increasing to the present day. (See an Historical Account 
of the Rise and Progess of the Secession, by the late Rev. 
John Brown, of Haddington.) The Seceders are strict 
Presbyterians, having their respective associate synods, 
and are to be found not only in Scotland, but also in Ire- 
land and in the United States of America. Both classes 
have had among them ministers of considerable learning 
and piety. 

" There is also a species of Dissenters from the Church 
of Scotland called Relief whose only difference from the 
Kirk is, the choosing of their own pastors. They arose in 
1752, and are respectable as to numbers and ability. 
(See a Compendious View of the Religious System main- 
tained by the Synod of Relief, by P. Hutchinson ; and 
also Historical Sketches of the Relief Church, &c, by J. 
Smith.) The Relief are Calvinists as well as Presbyterians, 
but liberal in their views, admitting to their communion 
pious Christians of every denomination. They revere the 
union of faith and charity." 

In 1835, an attempt was made by the Church of Scot- 



KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 



109 



land to place itself on a more popular basis, by giving to 
the heads of families, communicants, a veto upon the nomi- 
nation of the patron; but the ecclesiastical action by which 
this was sought to be effected having been declared, by the 
Supreme Court, to be a civil act beyond the jurisdiction 
of the church, and no disposition being manifested by the 
Parliament to aid in removing the difficulty, a number of 
its most distinguished members, in 1843, withdrew in a 
body, and formed the "Free Church of Scotland." It is 
probable they anticipated that a step so decided would 
move the legislature to action on their behalf. One of 
their most dearly-cherished and prominent principles was 
the obligation of the state to provide for the religious in- 
struction of the people, and the insufficiency of the volun- 
tary principle for this purpose ; but the state's declining 
to act, left them to make a beautiful exemplification of the 
mistake of their own theory. They seemed to have proved, 
by logic, that a church could not sustain itself on the vol- 
untary principle ; they are demonstrating, by experiment, 
that it can do it, not only, but also that it can do it with 
signal advantage to its spiritual interests. The late emi- 
nent Doctor Chalmers, Doctors Candlish, Cunningham, 
and many others distinguished for their learning and piety, 
took part in securing the division. Since the separation, 
the Free Church has erected 676 churches, 487 of which 
are free from debt. They number now about 600 minis- 
ters, and have raised in less than five years 7,500,000 dol- 
lars for sustaining their interests. 



10 



110 



ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANS. 



ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANS. 

The appellation Presbyterian is in England appropri- 
ated to a large denomination of dissenters, who have no 
attachment to the Scotch mode of church government any- 
more than to episcopacy amongst us, and therefore to this 
body of Christians the term Presbyterian, in its original 
sense, is improperly applied. This misapplication has oc- 
casioned many wrong notions, and should be rectified. 
English Presbyterians, as they are called, adopt nearly 
the same mode of church government with the Independ- 
ents. Their chief difference from the Independents is, 
that they are less attached to Calvinism, and consequently 
admit a greater latitude of religious sentiment. It may 
be added, that their mode of admitting members into com- 
munion differs from that commonly practised among the 
Presbyterians. 

Recently a remarkable change has taken place in the 
ecclesiastical arrangements of the English Presbyterians. 
The Free Church of Scotland has erected its banner in Eng- 
land, and is now rallying its forces. The character of this 
new Presbyterian church in England, is the same with that 
of the Free Church. The general principles of its doc- 
trines, order of worship and government, may be found in 
the article on American Presbyterians. 

Under the care of the Presbyterian Synod of England, 
besides a Theological College, there are seven Presby- 
teries, viz. : Berwick-on-Tweed, Birmingham, Cumberland, 
Lancashire, London, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Northumber- 
land. In these Presbyteries there are 73 clergymen, 78 
churches, and 2 foreign missionaries. The Synod also 



AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 



Ill 



attends to various schemes of benevolence, among which 
are prominent, foreign and home missions, and ministerial 
education. Considering the comparatively short time in 
which this progress has been made, it appears to be highly 
encouraging. 



AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 

The word Presbyterian is often used in a wide sense as 
characterizing a large portion of the Protestant church. 
It embraces all those denominations which are opposed to 
prelacy. In prelatical church government and usages, a 
large number of sects are included. Thus, the Greek 
Church alone is made up of " The Greek Church proper," 
" The Russian Greek Church," "The Georgian and Min- 
grelian Churches," " The Nestor ian Churches," 4 'The 
Christians of St. Thomas," " The Jacobites," "The Copts," 
" The Abyssinians," " The Armenians," and many other 
minor denominations. "The Roman Church," "The Eng- 
lish Episcopal Church," and "The American Episcopal 
Church," are also each of them a portion of that great 
family of churches included under the term Prelacy. 
These all agree in one great fundamental principle. They 
believe that ecclesiastical government is a gift from Christ 
to priests, and that they possess the power of transmitting 
this authority to their successors. They differ in respect 
to their acknowledged head ; some of the Greek Christians • 
acknowledging one Patriarch, and some another, and some 
the Roman Pontiff. Some Romanists also acknowledge 
the Pope, and some deny his supremacy. The English 
Episcopal Church acknowledge the king, or, during the 





112 



AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 



present reign, the queen, as their head ; while American 
Episcopalians account diocesan bishops as the highest eccle- 
siastical officers. 

Presbyterians differ from Prelatists in respect to the 
source of ecclesiastical authority; and are divided, per- 
haps, into an equal number of minor denominations. They 
hold that all ecclesiastical authority is derived from the 
church itself ; that the teaching office is transmitted by a 
plurality of presbyters or bishops ; and that the whole 
body of believers, either as associated, or by their repre- 
sentatives, participate in the government. A bishop, ac- 
cording to the views of Presbyterians, is the pastor of a 
single congregation. Sometimes, as in the church of Ephe- 
sus, mentioned Acts xx. 28, several bishops or pastors uni- 
tedly presided over the spiritual instruction of a single 
worshipping assembly. This general system is sometimes 
termed "parity," because a leading feature of it is the 
equal official dignity of Christian ministers. Prelacy and 
Parity divide the Christian world. 

The Presbyterian church, in this general denomination, 
includes Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, Congregationalists, 
Baptists, Scotch, English, and American Presbyterians. 
Among these, the English Presbyterians, Congregational- 
ists, and Baptists, allow the popular will in ecclesiastical 
matters to be expressed by the members of the church as 
occasion may demand ; while the Dutch Reformed, Scotch, 
and American Presbyterians call for the exercise of popu- 
lar liberty in the election of lay elders, as making a part 
of the ecclesiastical courts, and in the election and dis- 
* mission of pastors, and in the entire control of the church 
edifices and congregational funds. 

Presbyterianism acknowledges no authority, in respect 
to the doctrines and duties of the Christian church, but 
the will of God as found in the sacred Scriptures. It 



AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 113 

maintains that God alone is Lord of the conscience, and 
hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of 
men ; and that the rights of private judgment, in all mat- 
ters that respect religion, are universal and inalienable. 
It holds, that all ecclesiastical power is only ministerial 
and declarative ; that is to say, that the Holy Scriptures 
are the only rule of faith and manners ; that no church 
judicatory ought to pretend to make laws to bind the con- 
science in virtue of their own authority, and that all their 
decisions ought to be founded upon the word of God. Ec- 
clesiastical discipline is purely moral and spiritual in its 
object, and ought not to be attended with any civil effects ; 
hence it can derive no force whatever but from its own 
justice, the approbation of an impartial public, and the 
favor and blessing of the great Head of the church. 

The officers of the Presbyterian church are bishops or 
pastors, ruling elders, and deacons. The pastor is the 
spiritual teacher of the congregation. He is expected to 
preach the gospel in the church on the Lord's day, to in- 
struct the people by occasional lectures, to superintend the 
catechismal teaching of the young, and to visit the sick 
and bereaved, and console them by spiritual counsel adapted 
to their necessities. Ruling elders are elected by the peo- 
ple as their representatives in the ecclesiastical courts, and 
to co-operate with the pastor in watching over the spiritual 
interests of the congregation. They are designated by 
the Apostle Paul under the title of " governments," and 
as " those who rule well," in distinction from such as labor 
in word and doctrine. Deacons are secular officers whose 
duty is the care of the poor, and the reception and dis- 
bursement of the charities of the congregation. 

The Session is the primary court of the church, and 
consists of the pastor and the ruling elders. The pas- 
tor is the president, and has the title of "Moderator 
10* H 



114 



AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 



of the session." In this primary court originates all the 
legislative action of the church. If the superior courts 
would take any step involving new constitutional princi- 
ples, they are obliged to send the question down to the 
church sessions, that they may thus know the will of the 
church itself, before any revolutionary measures can be 
adopted. The session is also charged with the duty of 
watching over the spiritual interests of the congregation. 
It can summon offenders to an account for their irregular- 
ities, or their neglect of Christian duty. It can investi- 
gate charges presented by others, and admonish, rebuke, 
or suspend or exclude from the Lord's table, those who are 
found to deserve censure, according to the degree of their 
criminality. It is the business of the session also to ap- 
point a delegate of its own body to attend, with the pas- 
tor, the higher judicatories of the church. It is required 
of the session to keep a fair record of all its proceedings, 
as also a register of marriages, baptisms, persons admitted 
to the Lord's Supper, deaths, and other removals of church 
members, and to transmit these records, at stated periods, 
to the presbytery for their inspection. 

A Presbytery consists of all the ministers, and one 
ruling elder from each church within a certain district. 
Three ministers and as many elders as may be present 
are necessary to constitute a quorum. The presbytery has 
power to receive and issue appeals from church sessions, 
and references brought before them in an orderly manner ; 
to examine and license and ordain candidates for the holy 
ministry ; to install, remove, and judge ministers ; to exa- 
mine and approve or censure the records of church ses- 
sions ; to resolve questions of doctrine or discipline, 
seriously and reasonably proposed ; to condemn erroneous 
opinions which injure the purity or peace of the Church ; 
to visit particular churches for the purpose of inquiring 



AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 



115 



into their state, and redressing the evils that may have 
arisen in them ; to unite or divide congregations, at the 
request of the people, or to form or receive new congrega- 
tions ; and, in general, to perform whatever may be deemed 
necessary to the spiritual welfare of the churches under 
their care. 

A Synod consists of several presbyteries united. Not 
less than three presbyteries are necessary to compose a 
synod. It is not made up of representatives from the 
presbyteries, as presbyteries are of representatives from 
the sessions. On the contrary, each member of all the 
presbyteries included in its bounds is a member of the 
synod, so that a synod is nothing different from a larger 
presbytery, constituted by a combination of several pres- 
byteries into one. The synod reviews the records of pres- 
byteries, approving or censuring their proceedings, erect- 
ing new presbyteries, uniting or dividing those which were 
before erected, taking a general care of the churches 
within its bounds, and proposing such measures to the 
General Assembly as may be for advantage to the whole 
church. The synod is a court of appeal for the presby- 
teries within its bounds, having the same relation to the 
presbyterial courts which the presbyteries have to the 
sessions. 

The General Assembly is the highest judicatory in the 
Presbyterian Church. It is constituted of an equal dele- 
gation of pastors and elders from the presbyteries. In 
one branch of the Presbyterian Church in America, the 
General Assembly is an appellate court ; in the other it is 
only an advisory council, except that it possesses power to 
review the proceedings of the inferior bodies, and to de- 
cide, as a supreme court, the meaning of the constitution. 

The General Assembly is not necessary to the most per- 
fect development of Presbyterian Church government, 



116 



AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 



nor, indeed, is any court higher than the Presbytery ; but 
it has this obvious advantage, of representing all the con- 
gregations of this denomination under the same civil 
government in a single body. Thus, the General Assem- 
bly of the Kirk of Scotland and the General Assembly 
of the United States, before either was divided, presented 
an imposing influence in the visible unity of each. 

The Church Sessions meet at stated periods, as often as 
may be deemed necessary. In some churches they con- 
vene once in each week ; in others less frequently. Pres- 
byteries hold two stated meetings in a year, while the 
synods in the United States meet annually. In the two 
great branches of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States, one General Assembly meets annually, and the 
other triennially. It is a rule in all the judicatories of 
the Presbyterian Church, that the meetings shall be con- 
stituted with prayer. In the stated meetings of presby- 
teries, synods, and the General Assembly, the session is 
opened by a sermon from the Moderator, or presiding offi- 
cer of the preceding meeting. 

The Doctrines of the Presbyterian Church are Calvin- 
istic — the doctrines of all the leading Reformers ; of the 
Waldenses, for five or six hundred years before the Refor- 
mation; of Augustin and the primitive Church. They 
are substantially the same with the doctrinal symbols of 
the Synod of Dort, the Heidelberg Confession and Cate- 
chism, and of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of 
England, and of the Episcopal Church of the United 
States. No other branch of the Reformed Churches has 
maintained Calvinistic doctrines with so much tenacious- 
ness as Presbyterians. While the Earl of Chatham could 
say of his own Church of England, " We have a Popish 
liturgy, a Calvinistic creed, and an Arminian clergy;" 
and while that denomination seem to be engaged in an 



AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 117 

interminable controversy to decide whether their branch 
of the Church ought to be considered Arminian or Calvin- 
istic, the Presbyterian Church is unitedly Calvinistic, so 
that any man who should avow himself Arminian could 
not obtain ordination in the Presbyterian Church of either 
Scotland or America. 

The system of doctrine is clearly set forth in the West- 
minster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter 
Catechisms. 

The Presbyterian Church in the United States origi- 
nated in a union of immigrants from Ireland and England 
— a blending of Irish Presbyterianism and English Con- 
gregationalism. The first presbytery formed in this coun- 
try was the presbytery of Philadelphia, organized in 1704. 
The synod of Philadelphia was erected in 1716, and was 
composed of the presbyteries of Philadelphia, Snow Hill, 
Newcastle, and Long Island. 

In 1741 the Church was divided in consequence of the 
inharmonious elements of which it was composed, and the 
synod of New York was formed. Fifteen years after the 
separation, in 1758, the synods of New York and Phila- 
delphia were united again. In 1789, the year of the first 
meeting of the General Assembly, there were in the 
Church 188 Presbyterian ministers and 419 churches. In 
1832 there were 21 synods, 110 presbyteries, 935 minis- 
ters, 2281 churches, and 17,348 communicants. In 1837, 
the Presbyterian Church was again thrown into a state of 
disunion, and divided into two nearly equal portions. 
Among so able and pious a body of men, the principles of 
the gospel are justly expected to exert their legitimate 
influence ; it can subserve no benefit to record the grounds 
of a dissension which, it is hoped, will be only temporary. 

These two branches of the Church are distinguished 
from each other by the circumstance that one holds the 



118 



REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS. 



meeting of its General Assembly annually; while the 
other meets only triennially. 

According to the Minutes of the General Assembly 
(Old School) of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States for 1859, that branch of the Church has in connec- 
tion with the Assembly 33 synods, 168 presbyteries, 297 
licentiates, 493 candidates for the ministry, 2577 minis- 
ters, 3487 churches, and 279,630 communicants ; and the 
whole amount contributed for congregational and other 
purposes in the year ending May, 1859, was $2,835,147. 

By the Minutes of the General Assembly (New School) 
of the Presbyterian Church in the United States for 1859, 
that branch of the Church has 108 presbyteries, 1545 
ministers, 134 licentiates, 370 candidates, 1542 churches, 
137,990 communicants ; and it expends annually on Do- 
mestic Missions, $91,402; on Foreign Missions, $67,796; 
on Education, $65,707 ; and on Publications, $44,667. 



KEFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

In 1588 the Scotch Protestants entered into an associa- 
tion which they denominated " The Covenant." The object 
of this arrangement was to protect themselves against an 
expected invasion from Spain by the famous " invincible 
armada." The union of the crowns of Scotland and Eng- 
land in 1603 resulted in a hierarchy, which was deemed 
dangerous, in the last degree, to the Presbyterian interests. 
This united in still closer bonds the friends of parity, and 
of ecclesiastical liberty. In 1637 the new liturgy, modelled 
after the English, was ordered to be introduced into the 
churches of Scotland. The most determined resistance 
ensued, which terminated in a new covenant the year fol- 



REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS. 



119 



lowing. While Charles I. and the Parliament were con- 
tending, the Protestants in Scotland entered into " a solemn 
league and covenant" with the English Parliament, by 
which the independence of the Presbyterian churches was 
confirmed. On the restoration of the Stuarts in 1661, this 
covenant was abolished. These successive struggles seemed 
to have engendered a habit of making firm compacts for 
maintaining what they considered important principles ; a 
habit which continues till this day. 

At the accession of William and Mary in 1689, Episco- 
pacy was established in England and Ireland, and Presby- 
terianism in Scotland. 

A portion of the Scottish Kirk declined to avail them- 
selves of an establishment of this kind, and covenanted to 
resist it, and protested that it was at variance with the 
"solemn league and covenant" which they considered a 
part of the constitution of the empire. They maintained 
that the civil rulers had usurped an authority over the 
church which conflicted with the proper headship of the 
Redeemer. 

Eor fifteen or sixteen years these staunch and determined 
men remained without pastors, preserving their distinct 
social existence by uniting in praying societies, and meeting 
statedly for religious worship. 

In 1706 the Rev. John MacMillan joined them from the 
Established Church. In 1743, the Rev. Mr. Nairne, from 
the Secession Church, then recently organized, acceded to 
them ; and these two clergymen, with ruling elders, consti- 
tuted the "Reformed Presbytery." Several families had, 
in the meantime, emigrated to the American colonies. 

About the same time in which the " Reformed Presby- 
tery" was organized in Scotland, the Rev. Mr. Craighead 
collected the Covenanters of Pennsylvania, and induced 
them to bind themselves together by a solemn public en- 



120 



REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS. 



gagement to maintain their peculiar principles. Their body 
was slowly augmented, mostly by immigration, till they 
were joined by the Rev. Mr. Cuthbertson, from the Reformed 
Presbytery of Scotland, in 1752 ; and Rev. Messrs. Lin 
and Dobbin, from the Reformed Presbytery in Ireland, in 
1774. This year the Reformed Presbytery was organized 
in the colony of Pennsylvania. 

Their growth was slow till 1782, when a union was effected 
between the Reformed Presbytery and the Associate Pres- 
byterian Church. Hence arose a new organization, deno- 
minated, from the name of its two constituent elements, the 
"Associate Reformed Church." 

This union, instead of combining two bodies in one, left 
a small minority in each of the elementary portions, which 
perpetuated the original organizations ; so that, in fact, 
two churches were divided into three, — an instructive in- 
stance of the influence of hasty and forced combinations 
of bodies of men. 

The doctrinal principles of the Reformed Church are 
thoroughly Calvinistic. The Reformed Presbyterians ob- 
jected to the Constitution of the United States, when it was 
formed, on account of its having no exclusive religious 
character, and its tolerating Jews, Mohammedans, Deists, 
and Atheists. They also objected to its recognition of sla- 
very. They declared that they would not take the oath 
of allegiance. 

In 1830, a portion of their ministers began to entertain 
different views, and were in favor of acknowledging the 
government of this country, and avowing allegiance to it. 
This led to what was called the New Light Controversy, 
and the formation of two organizations, which still remain 
separated. 

The entire body of the Reformed Presbyterians in the 
United States, including both these organizations, embraces 



ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIANS. 



121 



108 ministers, 15 licentiates, 25 students of Theology, 160 
congregations, and 14,000 communicants. Among the 
well known and distinguished ministers of this connection 
are the late Alexander McLeod, D. D., and Rev. Samuel 
B. Wylie. 



THE ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
OR SECEDERS. 

This, like the church just described, is an offshoot from 
the Church of Scotland. The cause of the secession was 
almost identical in its nature with that of the great seces- 
sion of 1843, by means of which the Free Church was 
created. In 1649, the patronage of kirks had been for- 
mally abolished by parliament, as " an evil and bondage," 
as "a custom popish," and as "prejudicial to the liberties 
of the people." 

The act of parliament above referred to remained in 
force until the year 1712, when the doctrine of patronage 
was again revived. Many protested against it loudly at 
the time. The right of patronage was, for a while, exer- 
cised with great moderation. A case arose, however, in 
which a minister was forced upon a congregation against 
the wishes of the great body of the people. The proceed- 
ing came before the General Assembly at its next session 
in May, 1732, and this, together with other similar cases, 
led to the adoption of an act "Anent planting vacant 
churches" wherein the general doctrine of patronage was 
strongly asserted. In the October following, the Rev. 
Ebenezer Erskine, a minister of distinguished ability and 
influence, in a sermon preached at the opening of the 
Synod of Perth and Sterling, denounced, with great free- 
11 



122 ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIANS. 

dom, the Act of Assembly above referred to. Mr. Erskine 
was censured by the synod, and hence arose the secession 
and the organization of the "Associate Presbytery of 
Scotland." This organization occurred November 17th, 
1733. Its growth, as might have been expected, was 
rapid, and in 1744 a synod was formed. The year fol- 
lowing, a controversy commenced, which resulted in the 
division of the synod into two parties, each claiming to be 
the "Associate Synod." The occasion of the disruption 
was the taking or not taking the burghers' oath. In order 
to be admitted burghers, or freemen of towns, an oath was 
required containing the following clause : "I protest before 
God and your lordship, that I profess and allow, with all 
my heart, the true religion, presently professed within 
this realm, and authorized by the laws thereof ; that I 
shall abide thereat, and defend the same to my life's end, 
renouncing the Roman religion called Papistry." The 
controversy turned on the question whether it was right 
to take an oath which implied an approval of the estab- 
lished church. The division was completed in 1746. 
Those who opposed the lawfulness of the oath were termed 
Anti-burghers, and its advocates Burghers. The act re- 
quiring the oath objected to, being repealed, the parties 
again coalesced, taking the title of The United Secession 
Church, with the exception of a small minority of the 
Anti-burghers, who only are represented in the United 
States by a regular organization. 

At an early day some of the secession emigrated to this 
country. The Rev. Messrs. Gellatly and Arnot were sent 
over by the Synod to organize congregations and to con- 
stitute them into a presbytery. • They reached the province 
of Pennsylvania in 1754, and organized the Associate 
Presbytery in the November of that year. 

In 1776, the number of ministers having increased to 



ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIANS. 



123 



thirteen, the presbytery was divided, and the eastern 
portion was denominated the " Presbytery of New York." 

In 1782, the division occurred by which the Associate 
Reformed Church came into existence, a more full history 
of which may be found in the preceding account of the 
Reformed Church. 

By this division, the Associate Church in this country 
was almost extinguished. 

The Synod of Scotland, however, despatched assistance, 
and the church was gradually strengthened until the 
formation of the Synod in 1800. This was denominated 
" The Associate Synod of North America." It held its 
first meeting in Philadelphia, May, 1801. This body was 
subordinate to the Associate Synod in the mother country, 
till it was declared a co-ordinate Synod by the General 
Associate Synod of Scotland, in 1818. 

In 1841, a controversy arose in respect to principles 
involved in some cases of discipline, and the minority 
declared themselves the Synod. Since that time, until 
recently, there have been two bodies claiming the same 
name. Within a short time the two bodies have coalesced. 

From the larger of these bodies another secession took 
place in 1845, denominating itself " The Associate Pres- 
bytery of Philadelphia." 

The Associate Presbyterian Church in this country is, 
in all its branches, decidedly Calvinistic in doctrine. It 
insists upon the use of the literal translation of the Psalms 
in its singing. It maintains a high standard of duty in 
respect to the education of its children in the fear of God, 
making it an offence worthy of discipline if parents neglect 
to teach their children the Shorter Catechism. It possesses 
a learned and pious ministry. It has a Theological Semi- 
nary at Xenia, Ohio, with two Professorships, one of 



124 ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH. 

didactic theology and Hebrew, and one of pastoral theology 
and biblical literature. Students 45. 

The strength of the whole Associate Church in this 
country is 20 presbyteries, 164 ministers, 267 congrega- 
tions, 21,588 communicants. 



THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH. 

This branch of the Presbyterian family of churches was 
called into existence, and took its name from a union that 
was formed between large portions of the Associate and 
the Reformed Presbyterian churches at Pequa, Pennsylva- 
nia, in June, 1782. Modifying the doctrine of the West- 
minster Confession of Faith concerning the power of the 
civil magistrate in matters of religion, and adapting the 
form of church government and the directory of worship 
to the Word of God, and the circumstances of the church 
in this country, the synod formally issued its constitution 
and standards at Greencastle, Pa,, May 31, 1799. 

Soon afterwards, there being, from various quarters, an 
urgent demand for sound and faithful ministers, the erec- 
tion of a theological seminary was taken into serious con- 
sideration ; and, in 1801, the Rev. John M. Mason was sent 
to Great Britain and Ireland with authority to procure a 
suitable number of evangelical ministers and probationers, 
and to solicit donations, in money and books, for establish- 
ing an institution to train young men for the gospel min- 
istry. He met with considerable success ; and, immediately 
on his return, the synod (which, in the autumn of 1802, 
had divided itself, for the convenience of its members, into 
four synods, and formed these into a general synod, to 
meet by delegation, and to hold its first meeting at Green- 
castle, May, 1804) took steps for establishing its theological 



ASSOCIATE BE FORM ED CHURCH. 125 

school. Their arrangements were completed in May, 
1805. The Eev. J. M. Mason, D. D., was appointed pro- 
fessor ; and on the 1st of November following, the institu- 
tution went into successful operation. It was the first 
theological seminary in the United States. 

Thus established, the synod pursued its course, and was 
largely prospered until about the year 1816, when, from a 
gradual relinquishment of some of its distinctive features, 
and the withdrawal, on that account, of the synods of Scioto 
into the West, and of the Carolinas, in the South, its interests 
materially declined. 

In May, 1822, a partial union was formed with the Gen- 
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and the General 
Synod was dissolved. The subordinate synods, however, 
continued their existence, and were active and useful in 
their work. Again the demand for ministers trained in 
the church, and sympathizing with it, in everything in which 
it was peculiar, was strong and urgent. Shortly afterwards, 
therefore, the synod of the "West established a seminary at 
Alleghany, Pa. The Rev. Joseph Kerr was its first pro- 
fessor ; and under his care, and that of his successors, Rev. 
Mungo Dick and Rev. John T. Pressly, D. D., it has been 
instrumental in furnishing the churches with a large num- 
ber of able ministers of the New Testament. In 1829 the 
Synod of New York revived the seminary at Newburgh, 
and placed it under the care of the Rev. Joseph MacCarroll, 
D. D. Already it has sent many laborers into the field ; 
and with an excellent building, a most valuable library, a 
good location, and an able professor, it presents most im- 
portant facilities for a theological education. A younger, 
but flourishing and valuable theological institution was also 
formed in 1839 by the second synod of the West, at Oxford, 
Ohio, under the presidency of the Rev. Joseph Claybaugh, 
D. D. At Due-west-corner, Abbeville district, S. C, an 
11* 



126 ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH. 

institution with literary and theological departments has 
also been opened, under the most auspicious circumstances. 
It is under the charge of four professors appointed by the 
synod of the South, and already numbers over one hundred 
students. 

In each of these synods there is a periodical devoted to 
the interests of the Associate Reformed Church, namely, 
in the order of their history : The Evangelical Guardian, 
edited by the Rev. D. Macdill, D. D., at Hamilton, Ohio ; 
The Christian Magazine of the South, by Rev. J. Boyce, 
in Fairfield district, S. C. ; The Preacher, by Rev. D. R. 
Kerr, at Pittsburg, Pa. ; and The Christian Instructor, by 
Rev. J. B. Dales, at Philadelphia. Besides projecting and 
sustaining these institutions and publications, the Associate 
Reformed Church has commenced a most interesting mis- 
sion to Palestine ; taken incipient steps for one in Western 
Africa ; appointed two ministers to explore Texas during 
the coming season, and resolves upon a special effort to 
seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel in our large cities, 
and point them to the true Messiah, as soon as the proper 
men can be employed. 

The Associate Reformed Church is the most liberal and 
efficient of all the branches of the early Scotch Secession 
churches. It has numbered among its ministry some of the 
most brilliant lights of learning and religion in this country. 
It is thoroughly Calvinistic in doctrine, maintains the literal 
psalmody, and is very strict in its discipline. 

The Rev. John Mason, and his son, John M. Mason, D. D.; 
Rev. James Proudfit, and Alexander Proudfit, D. D. ? the 
late eminent and beloved advocate of African colonization, 
were men to adorn any church, and any age. At the pre- 
sent time the Associate Reformed Church comprises 5 
synods, 84 presbyteries, upwards of 315 ministers, more 
than 375 churches, and about 40,000 members. 



CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 



127 



CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 

About the beginning of the present century there arose 
a remarkable revival of religion among a portion of the 
Presbyterian church in Kentucky. Meetings were held 
in the open air ; and multitudes flocked together from the 
distance of fifty, and even in some instances, a hundred 
miles. This was the origin of camp-meetings. As the 
number of converts was great, and religion was extended 
into destitute and neglected regions, a strong necessity was 
felt for a more rapid multiplication of Christian ministers. 
This led the Cumberland Presbytery, in 1801, to encourage 
four laymen, without a classical education, to prepare 
written discourses with a view to the receiving of license 
to preach the gospel. In 1803 Mr. Alexander Anderson, 
and Mr. Finis Ewing, were ordained to the work of the 
ministry. Others were licensed as probationers, and several 
candidates were received under the care of the presbytery. 

In 1805, the Synod of Kentucky, in reviewing the book 
of records of the Cumberland Presbytery, took notice of 
their having introduced men into the sacred office who had 
not acquired a regular education, and who were understood 
to have taken exceptions to the doctrinal standards of the 
Church. This led to the appointment of a commission, 
with full powers to act in the place of the synod, both in 
holding a friendly conference with the presbytery, and in 
judicially terminating the case. 

The commission demanded that all those persons who 
had been ordained or licensed without an examination on 
all the branches of learning and doctrine required in the 
Confession of Faith, should appear before themselves, and 



128 



CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 



submit to a full and regular examination. To this demand 
the presbytery declined to submit. 

The commission then passed a resolution that those who 
had been thus licensed or ordained without a full examina- 
tion, should be prohibited from the exercise of official 
functions, until such times as they should submit them- 
selves to their jurisdiction. 

The members of presbytery continued to exercise their 
ministry, but not without making various efforts, during a 
period of five years, to obtain through the General As- 
sembly a "redress of grievances." Having failed in all 
these endeavors, the Rev. Messrs. Ewing, King, and 
McAdam, in 1810, declared themselves independent, and 
constituted the Cumberland Presbytery, which was the 
germ of the present Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
In their constitution, the following statement is made as 
defining their position : 

"We, Samuel McAdam, Finis Ewing, and Samuel King, 
regularly ordained ministers of the Presbyterian Church, 
against whom no charge either of immorality or heresy 
has ever been exhibited before any judicature of the 
church, having waited in vain more than four years, in the 
mean time petitioning the General Assembly for a redress 
of grievances, and a restoration of our violated rights, 
have and do hereby agree and determine to constitute our- 
selves into a presbytery, known by the name of the Cum- 
berland Presbytery, on the following conditions : 

"All candidates for the ministry, who may hereafter be 
licensed by this presbytery, and all the licentiates or pro- 
bationers who may hereafter be ordained by this presby- 
tery, shall be required, before such licensure and ordina- 
tion, to receive and accept the Confession of Faith and 
Discipline of the Presbyterian Church, except the idea of 
fatality that seems to be taught under the mysterious doc- 



CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 



129 



trine of predestination. It is to be understood, however, 
that such as can clearly receive the Confession of Faith 
without an exception, will not be required to make any. 
Moreover, all licentiates, before they are set apart to the 
whole work of the ministry, or ordained, shall be required 
to undergo an examination in English Grammar, Geogra- 
phy, Astronomy, Natural and Moral Philosophy, and 
Church History. It will not be understood that examina- 
tions in Experimental Religion and Theology will be 
omitted. The presbytery may also require an examination 
on any part, or all, of the above branches of knowledge 
before licensure, if they deem it expedient." 

So rapid was their growth, that three years after, in 
1813, they became three presbyteries, and constituted a 
synod. At the sessions of the synod in 1828, three new 
synods were erected, and measures were taken for the or- 
ganization of a general assembly. The first meeting of 
the General Assembly occurred at Princeton, Ky., in 
1829. 

The doctrines of this church are a modification of the 
Westminster Confession. The chief point of difference is 
their rejecting the doctrine of election, as in their view 
tending to fatality. They are strictly Presbyterian in 
government and order. 

Soon after the colonization of Texas by Austin, there 
were Cumberland Presbyterian preaching stations and 
small churches planted there. They increased in size and 
numbers. In the process of time a presbytery was orga- 
nized. Now, a flourishing synod, composed of several 
presbyteries, exists. In it there is a religious periodical, 
well conducted, which promises to exert a considerable reli- 
gious and moral influence. 

Recently, a Board of Foreign and Domestic Missions 
has been formed in connection with this denomination. It 

I 



130 



MORAVIANS. 



is the general wish to act on this subject in future more 
efficiently and systematically. No foreign field has, as 
yet, ever been occupied by the Cumberland Presbyterians. 

The General Assembly has under its superintendence 
17 synods, 48 presbyteries, 1000 congregations, 650 min- 
isters, 200 licentiates, 150 candidates for the ministry, and 
over 100,000 communicants. The number of communi- 
cants in some estimates has been placed considerably 
higher than this. The lowest has here been stated. Reck- 
oning four children, and other adherents, to each commu- 
nicant, which it will be acknowledged is a very low esti- 
mate, there will be found 500,000 persons connected with 
this branch of the Redeemer's kingdom. 



MORAVIANS. 

This sect is supposed to have arisen under Nicholas 
Lewis, Count of Zinzendorf, a German nobleman, who 
died in 1760. They were also called Hemhutters, from 
Hernhuth, the name of the village where they first settled. 
The followers of Count Zinzendorf are called Moravians, 
because the first converts to his system were some Mora- 
vian families ; the society themselves, however, assert that 
they are descended from the old Moravian and Bohemian 
brethren, who existed as a distinct sect sixty years prior 
to the Reformation. They also style themselves Unitas 
Fratrum, or the United Brethren. 

They live in distinct communities, and unite their inte- 
rests very closely, but do not hold to a community of 
goods. In their separate communities they do not allow 
the permanent residence of any persons as householders, 



MORAVIANS. 



131 



who are not members in full communion. Their discipline 
allows no balls, dancing, or plays, and forbids all promis- 
cuous assembling of the youth of both sexes. Public reli- 
gious meetings are held every evening. On Sunday morn- 
ing the Church Litany is read, and sermons are delivered. 
The festival days, such as Easter and Christmas, are cele- 
brated. Music holds a prominent place in their devotions. 
'They partake of a "love feast" of coffee, tea, and light 
cakes, with instrumental music and hymns, previously to 
celebrating the Lord's Supper. Funerals are attended by 
bands of music, without any external badges of mourning. 

The ecclesiastical church officers are the bishops, through 
whom the regular succession of ordination, transmitted to 
the United Brethren through the ancient church of the 
Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, is preserved, and who 
alone are authorized to ordain ministers, but possess no 
authority in the government of the church, except such as 
they derive from some other office, being most frequently 
the presidents of some board of elders ; the presbyters, or 
ordained stated ministers of the communities, and the dea- 
cons. The degree of deacon is the first bestowed upon 
young ministers and missionaries, by which they are au- 
thorized to administer the sacraments. 

Females, although elders among their own sex, are never 
ordained, nor have they a vote in the deliberations of the 
board of elders, which they attend for the sake of infor- 
mation only. 

The Moravians have been distinguished for their zeal in 
propagating Christianity among the heathen. They have 
no symbol of faith but the Bible ; yet they adhere mostly 
to the Augsburg Confession. Count Zinzendorf came to 
America in 1741, and preached at Germantown and Beth- 
lehem. On February 11th, 1742, he ordained at Oly, Pa., 
the missionaries Rauch and Buetner ; and Rauch baptized 



132 



FREE-WILL BAPTISTS. 



three Indians from Shekomeco, east of the Hudson, "the 
firstlings of the Indians." He soon, with his daughter 
Benigna, and several brethren and sisters, visited various 
tribes of Indians. 

At present the Moravians have separate communities at 
Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, which is their largest esta- 
blishment in this country ; at Nazareth and Litiz ; also at 
Salem, N. C. Besides these communities, they have a few 
scattered congregations. The whole number of their con- 
gregations is 23. They have 2 bishops, 25 pastors and 
assistant pastors, and 4 principal schools. Their present- 
number of members in the United States is about 6000. 
In Europe they number 15,000. 



FREE-WILL BAPTISTS. 

The founder of this denomination was the Rev. Benja- 
min Randall. He was originally a preacher connected 
with the Calvinistic Baptists. Having embraced Arminian 
views, and being disowned by his brethren as unsound in 
the faith, he organized a church in New Durham, N. II., 
on the 30th day of June, 1780. Soon after this, other 
churches were formed on the same plan ; and these 
churches united together, and constituted the New Durham 
Quarterly Meeting. 

They were first called Free Willers, by way of reproach. 
Subsequently they assumed the name as one by which 
they are willing to be designated. They are nearly allied 
to the English General Baptists. 

They have three missionaries in India; also a home 
mission society, a Sunday-school union, and an education 
society for training men for the sacred office. 



FREE-WILL BAPTISTS. 



133 



Their ecclesiastical government is a mixture of Congre- 
gationalism and Presbyterianism. The discipline of private 
members belongs to the churches with which they are con- 
nected. They have quarterly meetings, consisting of 
ministers and lay delegates. To these bodies ministers are 
amenable. The quarterly meeting possesses very much 
the character of a presbytery. Several quarterly meetings, 
united in an annual council, make what they term a yearly 
meeting. All the annual meetings are convened together 
triennially as a general conference. 

The denomination has been divided by the question of 
slavery, the greater portion of the church having withdrawn 
from about four thousand communicants in South Carolina, 
on account of their being slaveholders. For the same 
reason they declined receiving into their connection some 
twelve thousand from Kentucky, who sent a delegation to 
the general conference to solicit a union. They hold what 
is commonly understood by Armenian doctrines, denying 
the doctrine of personal election and the inadmissibleness 
of grace. They have a book concern and printing estab- 
lishment at Dover, N. H. Its trustees are appointed by 
the general conference. 

If we reckon in the statistics of the denomination those 
who have been disowned on account of their connection 
with slavery, we shall find that they had, according to the 
Baptist Register of 1846, 115 quarterly meetings, com- 
prised in 25 yearly meetings, 1249 churches, 1076 minis- 
ters, and 55,323 communicants. They have now 133 
associations, 1720 churches, 965 ordained ministers, 158 
licentiates, and 56,026 communicants. 



12 



134 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS, OR DISCIPLES. 

This denomination of Christians, it is fair to say, object 
to the first cognomen at the head of this section. We use 
it because it is the name by which they are popularly 
known. The Rev. Alexander Campbell, who must be 
regarded as their founder, objects to denominating a 
church by any other name than one sanctioned by Scrip- 
ture. They say they would prefer the term Christians, 
but do not wish to assume a designation which might seem 
to deny the appellation to others. They prefer to be 
called Disciples. 

After Mr. Campbell became a Baptist, he was for some 
time connected with the Associated Baptists in Western 
Pennsylvania, and was for a time clerk of the Old Red- 
stone Association. Their professed aim is to bring Chris- 
tianity back to its primitive simplicity. They reject all 
symbols of faith except the Bible, and object to all techni- 
calities in theology. From taking exceptions to the word 
" Trinity," and perhaps for other reasons, they have been 
extensively regarded as Unitarians. It appears, however, 
from their chief book in theology, and from a tract setting 
forth their principles, that they clearly and unequivocally 
deny Unitarian doctrines. They have a college in Brooke 
County, Virginia. It has a full corps of officers, and is in 
a flourishing condition. The Millenial Harbinger is an 
octavo periodical, conducted by Mr. Campbell. Unlike 
the Associate Baptists, they invite Christians of all deno- 
minations to commune with them at the table of the Lord, 
which service they celebrate on every Lord's day. 

The following statement by one of their number, proba- 
bly by Mr. Campbell himself, is a very explicit declaration 
of their object and their principles. 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



135 



" The constitutional principle of this Christian associa- 
tion and its object are clearly expressed in the following 
resolution : — ' That this society, formed for the sole pur- 
pose of promoting simple evangelical Christianity, shall, 
to the utmost of its power, countenance and support such 
ministers, and such only, as exhibit a manifest conformity 
to the original standard, in conversation and doctrine, in 
zeal and diligence; only such as reduce to practice the 
simple original form of Christianity, expressly exhibited 
upon the sacred page, without attempting to inculcate any- 
thing of human authority, of private opinion, or inventions 
of men, as having any place in the constitution, faith, or 
worship of the Christian church.' 

" But to contradistinguish this effort from some others 
almost contemporaneous with it, we would emphatically 
remark, that, whilst the remonstrants warred against 
human creeds, evidently because those creeds warred 
against their own private opinions and favorite dogmas, 
which they wished to substitute for those creeds, — this 
enterprise, so far as it was hostile to those creeds, warred 
against them, not because of their hostility to any private 
or favorite opinions which were desired to be substituted 
for them ; but because those human institutions supplanted 
the Bible, made the Word of God of non-effect, were fatal 
to the intelligence, union, purity, holiness, and happiness 
of the disciples of Christ, and hostile to the salvation of 
the world. We had not at first, and we have not now, a 
favorite opinion or speculation, which we would offer as a 
substitute for any human creed or constitution in Chris- 
tendom. 

"With various success, and with many of the opinions 
of the various sects imperceptibly carried with them from 
the denominations to which they once belonged, did the 
advocates of the Bible cause plead for the union of Chris- 



136 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



tians of every name on the broad basis of the apostles' 
teaching. But it was not until the year 1823, that a 
restoration of the original gospel and order of things began 
to be advocated in a periodical, edited by Alexander 
Campbell, of Bethany, Virginia, entitled 4 The Christian 
Baptist.' 

" He and his father, Thomas Campbell, renounced the 
Presbyterian system, and were immersed in the year 1812. 
They and the congregation which they had formed, united 
with the Redstone Baptist Association ; protesting against 
all human creeds as bonds of union, and professing subjec- 
tion to the Bible alone. But in pressing upon the atten- 
tion of that society and the public the all-sufficiency of the 
Sacred Scriptures for everything necessary to the perfec- 
tion of the Christian character, whether in the private or 
social relations of life, in the church or in the world, they 
began to be opposed by a strong creed-party in that asso- 
ciation. After some ten years' debating and contending 
for the Bible alone, and the apostles' doctrine, Alexander 
Campbell, and the church to which he belonged, united 
with the Mahoning Association of Ohio — that association 
being more favorable to his views of reform. 

" In his debates on the subject and action of baptism 
with Mr. Walker, a seceding minister, in the year 1820, 
and with Mr. M'Calla, a Presbyterian minister, in 1823, 
his views of reformation began to be developed, and were 
very generally received by the Baptist society, as far as 
these works were read. 

"But in his 'Christian Baptist,' which began July 4, 
1823, his views of the need of reformation were more 
fully exposed ; and as these gained ground by the pleading 
of various ministers of the Baptist denomination, a party 
in opposition began to exert itself, and to oppose the 
spread of what they were pleased to call heterodoxy. 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



137 



But not till after great numbers began to act upon these 
principles, was there any attempt towards separation. 
After the Mahoning Association appointed Walter Scott 
an evangelist, in 1827, and when great numbers began to 
be immersed into Christ under his labors, and new churches 
began to be erected by him and other laborers in the field, 
did the Baptist associations begin to declare non-fellowship 
with the brethren of the Reformation. Thus by constraint, 
not of choice, they were obliged to form societies out of 
those communities that split upon the ground of adherence 
to the Apostles' doctrine. The distinguishing character- 
istics of their views and practices are the following : — 

" They regard all the sects and parties of the Christian 
world as having, in greater or less degree, departed from 
the simplicity of faith and manners of the first Christians. 
This defection they attribute to the great varieties of spe- 
culation and metaphysical dogmatism of the countless 
creeds, formularies, liturgies, and books of discipline 
adopted and inculcated as bonds of union and platforms 
of communion in all the parties which have sprung from 
the Lutheran Reformation. The effects of these synodical 
covenants, conventional articles of belief, and rules of 
ecclesiastical polity, has been the introduction of a new 
nomenclature, a human vocabulary of religious words, 
phrases, and technicalities, which has displaced the style 
of the living oracles, and affixed to the sacred diction 
ideas wholly unknown to the apostles of Christ. 

" To remedy and obviate these aberrations, they propose 
to ascertain from the Holy Scriptures, according to the 
commonly received and well established rules of interpre- 
tation, the ideas attached to the leading terms and sen- 
tences found in the Holy Scriptures, and then to use the 
words of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic acceptation of 
them. 

12* 



138 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



"By thus expressing the ideas communicated by the 
Holy Spirit, in the terms and phrases learned from the 
apostles, and by avoiding the artificial and technical lan- 
guage of scholastic theology, they propose to restore a 
pure speech to the household of faith ; and by accustoming 
the family of God to use the language and dialect of their 
heavenly Father, they expect to promote the sanctification 
of one another through the truth, and to terminate those 
discords and debates which have always originated from 
the words which man's wisdom teaches, and from a reve- 
rential regard and esteem for the style of the great mas- 
ters of polemic divinity ; believing that speaking the same 
things in the same style is the only certain way to thinking 
the same things. 

" They make a very marked distinction between faith 
and opinion ; between the testimony of God and the rea- 
sonings of men : the words of the Spirit and human infer- 
ences. Faith in the testimony of God and obedience to 
the commandments of Jesus are their bond of union; and 
not an agreement in any abstract views or opinions upon 
what is written or spoken by divine authority. Regarding 
all the opposing theories of religious sectaries as extremes 
begotten by each other, they cautiously avoid them, as 
equidistant from the simplicity and practical tendency of 
the promises and precepts, of the doctrine and facts, of 
the exhortations and precedents of the Christian institu- 
tion. They look for unity of spirit and the bonds of 
peace in the practical acknowledgement of ' one faith, one 
Lord, one immersion, one hope, one body, one Spirit, one 
God and Father of all;' not in unity of opinions, nor in 
unity of forms, ceremonies, or modes of worship. 

" The Holy Scriptures of both Testaments they regard 
as containing revelations from God, and as all necessary 
to make the man of God perfect, and accomplished for 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



139 



every good word and work : the New Testament, or the 
living oracles of Jesus Christ, they understand as contain- 
ing the Christian religion ; testimonies of the four evan- 
gelists they view as illustrating and proving the great pro- 
position on which our religion rests, namely, — that Jesus 
of Nazareth is the Messiah, the only begotten and well- 
beloved Son of God, and the only Saviour of the world ; 
the Acts of the Apostles as a divinely authorized narra- 
tive of the beginning and progress of the reign or king- 
dom of Jesus Christ, recording the full development of 
6 the gospel' by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, 
and the procedure of the apostles in setting up the Church 
of Christ on earth ; the Epistles as carrying out and ap- 
plying the doctrine of the apostles to the practice of in- 
dividuals and churches, and as developing the tendencies 
of the gospel in the behavior of its professors, and all as 
forming a complete standard of faith and morals, adapted 
to the interval between the ascension of Christ, and his 
return with the kingdom which he has received from God. 

"Every one who sincerely believes the testimony which 
God gave of Jesus of Nazareth, saying, ' This is my Son, 
the beloved, in whom I delight,' or, in other words, believes 
what the evangelists and apostles have testified concerning 
him, from his conception to his coronation in heaven, as 
Lord of all, and who is willing to obey him in everything, 
they regard as a proper subject of immersion into the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Spirit, and no one else. They consider Christian baptism, 
after a public, sincere, and intelligent confession of the 
faith in Jesus, as necessary to admission to the privileges 
of the kingdom of the Messiah, and as a solemn pledge on 
the part of heaven, of the actual remission of all past 
sins, and of adoption into the family of God. 

" The Holy Spirit is promised only to those who believe 



140 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



and obey the Saviour. No one is taught to expect the 
reception of that heavenly monitor and Comforter as a 
resident in his heart, till he obeys the gospel. Thus, while 
they proclaim faith and repentance, or faith and a change 
of heart, as preparatory to immersion, remission of sins, 
and the gift of the Holy Spirit, they say to all penitents, 
or all those who believe and repent of their sins, as Peter 
said to the first audience addressed after the Holy Spirit 
was bestowed after the glorification of Jesus, 'Be immersed, 
every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the 
remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Spirit.' They teach sinners that God commands all men 
everywhere to repent or to turn to God; that the Holy 
Spirit strives with them so to do by the apostles and pro- 
phets ; that God beseeches them to be reconciled through 
Jesus Christ, and that it is the duty of all men to believe 
the gospel and turn to God. 

" The immersed believers are congregated into societies 
according to their nearness to each other, and taught to 
meet every first day of the week in honor and commemora- 
tion of the resurrection of Jesus, and to attend to the Lord's 
Supper, which commemorates the death of the Son of God, 
to read and hear the living oracles, to teach and admonish 
one another, to unite in all prayer and praise, to contribute 
to the necessities of saints, and to perfect holiness in the 
fear of the Lord. 

" Every congregation chooses its own overseers and 
deacons, who preside over and administer the affairs of the 
congregations ; and every church, either from itself, or in 
co-operation with others, sends out, as opportunity offers, 
one or more evangelists, or proclaimers of the word, to 
preach the word and to immerse those who believe, to gather 
congregations, and to extend the knowledge of salvation as 
far as their means extend. But every church regards these 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



141 



evangelists as its servants, and therefore they have no 
control over any congregation, each church being subject 
to its own choice of presidents or elders, whom they have 
appointed. Perseverance in all the work of faith, labor 
of love, and patience of hope, is inculcated by all the 
Disciples, as essential to admission into the heavenly 
kingdom. 

"Such are the prominent outlines of the faith and prac- 
tice of those who wish to be known as the disciples of Christ ; 
but no society among them would agree to make the pre- 
ceding items either a confession of faith or a standard of 
practice ; but, for the information of those who wish an 
acquaintance with them, are willing to give at any time a 
reason for their faith, hope, and practice. 

" On the design of baptism, and the benefits resulting 
from this ordinance to the penitent believer through the 
blood of Christ, the Disciples have been greatly minunder- 
stood. That the blood of Jesus is the only procuring cause 
of the remission of sins, is believed by every Disciple. 
Baptism, they teach, is designed to introduce the subjects 
of it into the participation of the blessings of the death and 
resurrection of Christ, who died for our sins, and rose 
again for our justification. But it has no abstract efficacy. 
Without previous faith in the blood of Christ, and deep and 
unfeigned repentance before God, neither immersion in 
water nor any other action can secure to us the blessings 
of peace and pardon. It can merit nothing. Still to the 
believing penitent it is the means of receiving a formal, 
distinct, and specific absolution, or release from guilt. 
Therefore none but those who have first believed in Christ 
and repented of their sins, and that have been intelligently 
immersed into his death, have the full and explicit testi- 
mony of God, assuring them of pardon. In reference to 
regeneration the Disciples teach that an individual who is 



142 



CAMPBELLITE BAPTISTS. 



first begotten of God, whose heart is imbued with the word 
of God, is enabled to enjoy the life thus bestowed when 
immersed into Christ, as it gives him an introduction to 
the happiness and society of the pardoned and the spiritual. 
Baptism, succeeding faith and repentance, consummates 
regeneration. The new birth as a change of state, is a 
formal ingress of a penitent believer, a prior spiritual crea- 
tion, into the family and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Formed for a new state by faith and repentance, he enjoys 
its heavenly adaptations the moment he enters the king- 
dom by being baptized in the name of Christ. The waters 
of baptism in connection with the death of Jesus, afford 
him as great an assurance of safety, as did their type, the 
waters of the Red Sea, to the redeemed Israelites, when 
they engulphed Pharaoh and his hosts. Thus are we taught 
that penitent believers are born the children of God by 
baptism — that salvation is connected with baptism when 
accompanied by faith — that remission of sins is to be en- 
joyed by baptism through the blood of Christ — that per- 
sons, having previously believed and repented, wash away 
their sins in baptism, calling on the name of the Lord — 
that they profess to be dead to sin and alive to God in the 
action of baptism — that believers put on Christ when bap- 
tized into Christ — that the church is cleansed by baptism 
and belief of the Word of God — that men are saved by 
baptism in connection with the renewing of the Holy 
Spirit — and that the answer of a good conscience is obtained 
in baptism through the resurrection of Christ. 

"As the Disciples endeavor to call Bible things by Bible 
names, they have repudiated all words and phrases in re- 
spect to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not sanctioned by 
divine usage. Never employing such terms as 6 trinity,' 
' eternal generation,' 'eternal filiation,' 6 eternally begot- 
ten,' Eternal procession,' 'co-essential and consubstantial,' 



BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 143 



and all others of the same category, they have sometimes 
been denominated, but most unjustly so, Unitarians. They 
believe that Christ is absolutely divine, infinitely above any 
super-human or even super-angelic being. They believe 
Christ to be ' God' in nature, and not in office only, or be- 
cause he is invested with divine prerogatives, as Moses is 
said to have been made ' a god unto Pharaoh," and as the 
magistrates of Israel are called 'gods,' as being engaged 
in administering divine laws." 

As this denomination are not bound together by public 
bodies in any such manner as to secure by published min- 
utes correct statistical tables, there is much uncertainty in 
respect to their numbers. Their increase, however, has 
been rapid, and their numbers are great. Mr. Campbell 
computes them at more than 200,000. Benedict, in his 
History of the Baptists, says they have 1600 churches, 
1000 ministers, and 200,000 communicants. 



BAPTISTS— MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 

Under this head it is proposed to place in a group 
several denominations of Baptists that are less important 
than those before mentioned, because fewer in their num- 
bers. 

SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. 

" The terms Sabbatarian and Seventh-day Baptists are 
used to designate those Christians who observe the seventh 
or last day of the week as the Sabbath. The former term 
was adopted in England soon after the Reformation, when 
the word Sabbath was applied exclusively to the seventh 
day, and when those who observed that day were regarded 



144 BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 



as the only true Sabbath-keepers, or Sabbatarians. In 
the year 1818, this term was rejected by the General Con- 
ference in America, on account of its supposed indefinite- 
ness ; and the term Seventh-day Baptist was adopted in 
its stead, as more descriptive of the opinions and practices 
of the people. 

" The Seventh-day Baptists are distinguished from Bap- 
tists generally by the views which they entertain of the 
Sabbath. In respect to this, they believe that the seventh 
day of the week was sanctified and blessed for the Sabbath 
in Paradise, and was designed for all mankind ; that it 
forms a necessary part of the Ten Commandments, which 
are immutable in their nature, and universally binding; 
that no change as to the day of the Sabbath was made by 
divine authority at the introduction of Christianity ; that 
those passages in the New Testament which speak of the 
first day of the week, do not imply either the substitution 
of that day for the seventh as the Sabbath, or its appoint- 
ment as a day of religious worship ; that whatever respect 
the early Christians paid to the first day of the week, on 
the supposition of its being the day of Christ's resurrec- 
tion, yet they never regarded it as the Sabbath, but conti- 
nued to observe the seventh day in that character until, 
by edicts of emperors and the decrees of councils, the first 
day was made gradually to supersede it. 

" At what precise time the observers of the seventh day 
took a denominational form, it is not easy to say. Ac- 
cording to Boss's ' Picture of all Religions,' they appeared 
in Germany late in the fifteenth or early in the sixteenth 
century. According to Dr. Chambers, they arose in Eng- 
land in the sixteenth century. Assuming the beginning 
of the sixteenth century as the true period of their origin, 
would carry them back as far as any of the modern deno- 
minations of Christians date. But whatever difficulty 



BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 145 

there may be in fixing the precise time of their origin as a 
denomination, the Seventh-day Baptists think there is no 
difficulty in proving the antiquity of their sentiments. In- 
deed, they believe that there has been no period since the 
commencement of the Christian era, when there were not 
upon the earth more or less Christians observing the sev- 
enth day. 

" They hold, in common with other Christians, the dis- 
tinguishing doctrines of Christianity. There were lately 
two congregations of the Sabbatarians in London; one 
among the General Baptists, meeting in Mill Yard, the 
trust-deeds of which date as far back as 1678, but which 
is now greatly reduced in number ; the other among the 
Particular Baptists, in Cripplegate. There are also a few 
to be found in different parts of the kingdom. 

" The Seventh-day Baptists in America date from about 
the same period that their brethren in England began to 
organize regular churches. Mr. Stephen Mumford was 
one of the earliest among them. He came from England 
to Newport, B. I., in 1665, and 'brought with him the 
opinion, that the Ten Commandments, as they were deli- 
vered from Mount Sinai, were moral and immutable, and 
that it was an anti- Christian power which changed the 
Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week.' 
He joined the First-day Baptist church in Newport, and 
soon won several members of that church to his views. 
They continued to walk with the church, however, for a 
time, until a difficulty arose in consequence of the hard 
things which were said of them by their brethren, such as, 
that the Ten Commandments, being given to the Jews, 
were not binding upon the Gentiles, and that those who 
observed the seventh day were gone from Christ to Moses. 
In November, 1671, they came to an open separation, 
when Stephen Mumford, William Hiscox, Samuel Hub- 
13 K 



146 BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 

bard, Roger Baster, and three sisters, entered into church 
covenant together, thus forming the first Seventh-day Bap- 
tist church in America. William Hiscox was chosen and 
ordained their pastor, which office he filled until his death, 
in 1704, in the 66th year of his age. He was succeeded 
by William Gibson, a minister from London, who continued 
to labor among them until he died, in 1717, at the age of 
79 years. Joseph Crandall had been his colleague for two 
years, and was selected to succeed him. When he died, 
in 1737, Joseph Maxson was chosen pastor, and discharged 
the duties of the office until 1743. He was followed by 
William Bliss, who served the church as pastor until his 
death, in 1808, at the age of 81 years. Henry Burdick 
succeeded him in the pastoral office, and occupied that post 
until a few years ago, when he died. Besides the regular 
pastors, this church has ordained several ministers, from 
time to time, who have labored with great usefulness, both 
at home and abroad. It has also included among its 
members several distinguished characters, two of whom, 
Richard and Samuel Ward, governors of the State of 
Rhode Island, are well known to history. 

" For more than thirty years after its organization, the 
Newport church included nearly all persons observing the 
seventh day in the States of Rhode Island and Connecticut; 
and its pastors were accustomed to hold stated meetings 
at several distant places, for the better accommodation of 
the widely-scattered members. But in 1708, the brethren 
living in what was then called Westerly R. I., (compre- 
hending all the south-western corner of the State,) thought 
best to form another society. Accordingly they proceeded 
to organize the Hopkinton church, which had a succession 
of worthy pastors, became very numerous, and built three 
meeting-houses for the accommodation of the members in 



BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 147 

the different neighborhoods. At present, there are seven 
churches in Rhode Island, and one in Connecticut." 

There are four Seventh-day Baptist churches in New 
Jersey, more than twenty in the State of New York, and 
many more of later origin scattered over the South and 
West. 

It is now nearly a century and a half since a yearly 
meeting was established by this denomination in our 
country. A general conference was formed in 1800. The 
conference comprises four associations. 

According to the Baptist Almanac for 1860, they have 
70 ordained ministers, 10 licentiates, 56 churches, and 
6577 communicants, and 4 associations. 

EPHRATA SOCIETY OF SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. 

The Ephrata Society arose out of a division of the 
Dunkers, in about 1730. They observe the seventh day 
as the Sabbath. They form a settlement near Lancaster, 
Pa., much on the plan of the old Moravian communities. 

The Society was originated by Conrad Beissel, a native 
of Germany, and a Dunker. In 1725, he published a tract 
in defence of observing the seventh day as a holy time. 
This discussion attracted to his views several other Dunkers 
from the society at Mill Creek, Lancaster County. In 
1728, they formally adopted the seventh day as the day 
for public worship. In 1732, they established a monastic 
society at Ephrata. They adopted the habit of the Ca- 
puchin friars. The men wear a shirt, trowsers, and vest, 
with a long white gown, and cowl. The dress of the sisters 
is the same, except that they wear petticoats in the place 
of trowsers, and a cowl of different shape. In 1740, 
there were in the cloister thirty-six single brethren and 
thirty-five sisters. No monastic vows were taken, and 
a community of goods was maintained. They consider 



148 BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 

celibacy a virtue, and favorable to eminent holiness, but 
do not prohibit marriage. They receive the Sacred Scrip- 
tures as the only rule of faith. They hold to the divinity 
of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, salvation by grace 
alone, the baptism of believers only, which they administer 
by trine immersion, with the laying on of hands, while the 
recipient remains kneeling in the water. Their numbers 
are greatly diminished, and are now inconsiderable. 

MENNONITES. 

Edwards, the Baptist historian, informs us that " some 
Mennonite families were in the province of Pennsylvania 
as early as the year 1692, who came hither from New 
York government, which at first belonged to the Dutch, 
and was called New Netherlands, extending from the river 
Delaware to the river of Connecticut. They settled in the 
neighborhood now called Germantown and Frankfort, &c. 
Other families soon followed ; and after them many came 
directly from Europe, insomuch that May 23, 1708, there 
was a church settled at Germantown, consisting of 52 
members, which exists to this day, (1770,) and is not only 
the first in the province, but, in some sort, the mother of 
all the rest. In about sixteen years after, this church had 
branched out to Skippeck, Conestoga, Great Swamp, and 
Monatony, and become five churches, to which appertained 
sixteen ministers, viz.: Rev. Messrs. Jacob Gottschalk, 
Henry Kolb, Martin Kolb, Cleas Johnson, Michael Zeigler, 
John Gorgas, John Conerads, Cleas Rittinghausen, Hans 
Burghaltzer, Christian Heer, Benedict Hirchy, Martin 
Beer, Johannes Bowman, Velter Clemer, Daniel Langan- 
ecker, and Jacob Beghtly. The present (1770) state of 
the Mennonites in this province is as follows : 1st, their 
churches, which contain many branches, are 13 ; 2d, the 
meeting-houses belonging to them are 42 ; 3d, their or- 



BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 149 

darned ministers or bishops are 15 ; 4th, their probationary 
or licensed preachers are 53 ; 5th, the families are about 
810, which, allowing five to a family, contain 4050 souls ; 
whereof 1448 persons are baptized and members of their 
churches. This account, I believe, is pretty exact, except 
the county of Lancaster hath introduced any error into it ; 
for in that county I have not met with as much readiness 
to give me the information I sought as in the other coun- 
ties, owing, I believe, to a suspicion that a knowledge of 
their state would, some way or other, be to their prejudice. 

" The Mennonites, in common with other communities, 
spread abroad in different directions. They formed settle- 
ments, and now have congregations and churches in Vir- 
ginia, Ohio, and Western New York, and the Canadas ; 
but they are the most numerous in the State where they 
first planted their standard on the American soil. This 
remark holds true of both the old and new connection. 

" The new connection of Mennonites was formed by a 
seceding party from the old body, in 1811. Connected 
with it are about 700 members in Pennsylvania, from 150 
to 200 in New York, about 200 in Upper Canada, and 
small detachments of them are found in Maryland, Ohio, 
Indiana, &c. The cause of the separation was purely on 
the principles of experimental religion, which the new 
interest sought to inculcate and maintain, in the spirit as 
well as the letter, according to the pattern set them by 
Menno Simon and his associates. They complain that the 
old body 4 have deviated from time to time and fallen 
away, particularly in the spiritual part of religion — have 
become lukewarm and carnally-minded, seeking transitory 
things more than spiritual, holding more to the letter and 
outward form, than to the spirit and real substance of 
religion.' 

" The Mennonites in the old world, for ages past, have, 
13 * 



150 BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 

as a general thing, administered baptism by pouring and 
laying on of hands ; and the same is true of them in this 
country, both of the old and new connection ; they are, 
however, the decided opponents of infant baptism in all 
its forms." The Mennonites have now 300 churches, 250 
ministers, and 36,280 communicants, as reported in the 
Baptist Almanac for 1860. 

TUNKERS OR DUNKERS. 

" The first appearing of these people in America was in 
the fall of the year 1719, when about twenty families 
landed in Philadelphia, and dispersed themselves, some to 
Germantown, some to Skippeck, some to Oley, some to 
Conestoga, and elsewhere. This dispersion incapacitated 
them to meet for public worship, and therefore they began 
to grow lukewarm in religion. But in the year 1722, 
Messrs. Baker, Gomery, Gantz, and the Trautes, visited 
their scattered brethren, which was attended with a great 
revival, insomuch that societies were formed wherever a 
number of families were within reach one of another. But 
this lasted not above three years. They settled on their 
lees again, till about thirty families more of their perse- 
cuted brethren arrived in the fall of the year 1729, which 
both quickened them again and increased their number 
everywhere. These two companies had been members of 
one and the same church, which originated at Schwardze- 
nau, in the year 1708. The first constituents were Alex- 
ander Mack and wife, John Kipin and wife, George Grevy, 
Andreas Bloney, Lucas Fetter, and Joanna Nethigeim. 
These had been bred Presbyterians, except Kipin, who was 
a Lutheran ; and being neighbors, they consorted together 
to read the Bible, and edify one another in the way they 
had been brought up, for as yet they did not know there 
were any Baptists in the world. However, believers' bap- 



BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 151 



tism and a congregational church soon gained upon them, 
insomuch that they had determined to obey the gospel in 
these matters. They desired Alexander Mack to baptize 
them ; but he, deeming himself in reality unbaptized, re- 
fused ; upon which they cast lots to find who should be 
administrator. On whom the lot fell hath been carefully 
concealed. However, baptized they were in the river 
Eder, by Schwardzenau, and then formed themselves into 
a church, choosing Alexander Mack to be their minister. 
They increased fast, and began to spread their branches to 
Merienborn and Epstein, having John Naass and Christian 
Levy to their ministers in those places. But persecution 
quickly drove them thence, some to Holland and some to 
Creyfelt. Soon after, the mother church voluntarily re- 
moved from Schwardzenau to Serustervin, in Friezland, 
and from thence migrated towards America, in 1719; and 
in 1729, those of Creyfelt and Holland followed their 
brethren. 

" Thus we see that all the Tunker churches in America 
sprang from the church at Schwardzenau, in Germany ; 
that that church began in 1708, with only seven souls, and 
that in a place where no Baptist had been in the memory 
of man, nor any now are. In sixty-two years that little 
one became a thousand, and that small one a great nation." 

One of their body, in a letter to Benedict, says of their 
doctrinal views, that " they have been charged with hold- 
ing the sentiments of the Universalists, which they all 
deny, and often testify against them." 

" This statement, I suppose, refers to the no-future-pun- 
ishment system, as he admits that by some of this commu- 
nity ' the writings and reasonings of Elhanan Winchester 
have been well received.' He also mentions a schism in 
this body in 1790, when a party of decided Universalists 
drew off under the ministry of one John Ham, a man of 



152 BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 



great talents and popular address. Some of his followers 
afterward moved into the Green River country, Ky., and 
caused great confusion among the brotherhood there as 
well as in North Carolina, where Ham himself lived at the 
time of the division. ' Those who have imbibed his opi- 
nions are thought to be in union and fellowship with the 
German Baptist Brethren, which has not been the case 
since the Yearly Meeting which was held in Franklin 
County, Virginia, fifty years ago, or upwards.' 

" This class of Tunkers, at present, reside in Kentucky, 
in the southern part of Illinois, in Missouri, and Iowa. 

" Summary statement of the Tunkers : Congregations 
and churches, 145 to 150 ; ministers of all grades, about 
300; communicants, say 10,000, or upwards." 

CHRISTIANS. 

This denomination call themselves Christians ; but as 
the name does not distinguish them from other Christians, 
and as the public must hafve a distinguishing appellation, 
the first part of the name is commonly pronounced as we 
pronounce the word Christ, when written by itself. Hence 
they are commonly called Christ-ians. One of their own 
writers gives the following account of their origin : 

"About fifty years ago, several Methodist preachers in 
the State of Virginia and in the Carolinas, became dissa- 
tisfied with the discipline of that church, and withdrew. 
They then agreed to search the Scriptures for a rule of 
life, and to believe, preach, and walk as they should direct. 
The result was, they soon became agreed that Christian 
was the appropriate name for all the followers of Christ, 
as all true believers hold ; and that while others go far- 
ther, and take some sectarian name of human origin, they 
ought not, and would not, receive or use among themselves 
any other. By thus searching the Scriptures for a rule, 



BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 153 



they became satisfied that as that book contained the whole 
of the rule of duty and faith, so no other was necessary ; 
and all others, if authoritative, served to divide and lead 
astray. Here they settled down upon the broad plan of 
the name all believers take — Christian ; and the rule they 
all acknowledge — the Bible. 

"A few years after this, several ministers of the Pres- 
byterian order, in the State of Kentucky, broke off from 
that body because of the government under which it acted ; 
and several of their usages appeared to them both unscrip- 
tural and oppressive. This act threw them upon the Bible, 
as the like act had thrown the seceders from the Metho- 
dists in Virginia ; and with the same result — for they soon 
agreed to be nothing but Christians, and to have no dis- 
cipline or rule but the Bible. 

" About the same time, a few ministers in New England, 
who had been connected with the Baptists, were led to see 
that human creeds were both useless and hurtful, and, in 
relinquishing these, they too were thrown upon the Bible 
alone. As they found there none of their names but 
Christian, and none of the modern denominational titles, 
they also soon agreed on that name, and on the Bible as 
their only rule of faith and practice. 

"Here, then, were three companies in the United States, 
all agreeing in these two points. But they were strangers 
to each other, and even to the fact that such companies 
existed. But in a few years each learned that others ex- 
isted, and by means of letters, and a periodical which was 
soon commenced among the New England Christians, a 
correspondence was opened, and a union created, so that 
the three became one, and have to this day been known 
as the ' Christian Connection in the United States of 
America.' 



154 BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 



" They are Unitarians in doctrine, and Baptists both in 
respect to the mode and the subjects of baptism. 

" The education of many of the ministers of the con- 
nection, who universally preach extempore, is defective. 
Their maxim has been, 'Let him who understands the 
gospel teach it ;' yet the sentiment is fast gaining ground 
among them, that literature and science are very useful 
auxiliaries in the illustration and enforcement of divine 
truth ; and a charter was obtained, in 1832, from the legis- 
lature of Indiana, for a Christian College, to be located in 
New Albany. 

" They are Independents in Church polity, yet repre- 
sented in associations composed of ministers and laymen, 
after the manner of presbyteries and synods, but without 
judicial authority. For the purpose of promoting the 
general interest and prosperity of the connection by 
mutual efforts and joint counsels, associations were formed, 
denominated conferences. Ministers and churches, repre- 
sented by delegates, formed themselves, in each State, into 
one or more conferences, called State Conferences, and 
delegates from these conferences formed the United States 
General Christian Conference. This general conference 
has been given up. The local or State conferences are 
still continued, possessing, however, no authority or control 
over the independence of the churches. 

" They number 40 associations, or conferences, 1100 
ministers, 1200 churches, and 80,000 communicants." 

SIX PRINCIPLE BAPTISTS. 

" The appellation of Six Principle Baptists is applied at 
the present time to a few churches in Rhode Island and a 
few other States, who, grounding their belief on Heb. vi. 
1-3, make the imposition of hands on all newly baptized 
members an indispensable pre-requisite to church fellow- 



BAPTISTS — MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 155 

ship and communion. As the people of this sentiment 
were among the first settlers in the State, where most of 
them now reside, the Old Baptists is a term very commonly 
applied to them, to distinguish them from their brethren 
of less rigid views on the rite in question. For a long 
time after the settlement of Rhode Island, the Baptist 
brotherhood who carry out to the letter the six principles 
laid down by the apostle Paul to the converted Hebrews, 
had a controlling influence in Baptist affairs in the State ; 
but some of their churches have become extinct, and others 
have ceased to maintain on this point the sentiments of 
their progenitors ; and the Orthodox, Free Will, and other 
classes of Baptists occupy a large portion of the ground 
where the old order formerly almost exclusively prevailed. 

" They have twenty churches, twenty-two ministers, 
and 3500 communicants." 

WINEBRENNARIANS. 

This is a small denomination of Baptists, which received 
its origin from the Rev. John Winebrenner, of Harrisburg, 
Pa., in 1830. They assumed to themselves the name of 
The Church of God. It is certainly allowed to every 
religious body to assume whatever name they choose in our 
free and happy country. If such name should not distin- 
guish them from others, no great evil can arise from that 
circumstance, inasmuch as the right of others is equally 
perfect to bestow a name upon them by which they shall 
be really distinguished. 

The Winebrennarian Baptist Church was organized in 
1830 ; and, through a fervent zeal in preaching the gospel, 
has secured a very considerable degree of success. They 
reject creeds and are Arminians in doctrine. They reject 
infant baptism, and practise immersion, and the literal 
washing of the saints' feet as an appointed ordinance. 



156 



UNITARIANS. 



They hold that domestic slavery and civil war are sinful, 
and believe in the personal reign of Christ. In ecclesias- 
tical government they are Presbyterian. They number at 
the present time 132 ministers, 275 churches, and 13,800 
communicants, existing in three presbyteries, which they 
term elderships. 



UNITARIANS. 

The name Unitarian does not clearly distinguish the 
denomination that has assumed it. All Christians alike 
hold to the proper unity of God. Those calling themselves 
Unitarians are distinguished rather by what they disbe- 
lieve, than by what they believe. They agree with other 
Christians in the belief that the one only living and true 
God is a being of infinite goodness. They give great pro- 
minence, however, to his paternal character, and insist 
much on those attractive views of God which represent him 
as a compassionate father of the human race. 

They reject the proper Deity of Christ, and his vicarious 
sacrifice. They deny the native depravity of man, and the 
doctrine of gratuitous justification. Of late many of the 
Unitarians have rejected the inspiration of the Scriptures. 
Others seem to be approximating nearer to the orthodox 
symbols than formerly. They are, as a class, a cultivated 
and intellectual people. 

In America, Unitarian opinions appear (Presid't Adam's 
letter to Dr. Morse) to have been extensively adopted in 
Massachusetts as early as the middle of the last century. 
In 1756, Emlyn's Humble Inquiry into the Scripture 
Account of Jesus Christ was published in Boston, chiefly, 
it is said, by the agency of Dr. Mayhew, of the West Church, 



UNITARIANS. 



157 



and came into wide circulation. In 1785 one of the three 
Episcopal churches of the city adopted a liturgy excluding 
the recognition of the Trinity. In 1805, attention was ex- 
tensively drawn to the subject by several publications, occa- 
sioned by the appointment of a distinguished Unitarian to 
the divinity chair of the University of Cambridge. In 1816, 
the controversy was revived by a republication, in this 
country, of a chapter from Mr. Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 
with the title American Unitarianism. Up to this time, 
the doctrine had been hardly discussed out of New Eng- 
land, though a small society, dating from the visit of Dr. 
Priestley in 1794, existed in Philadelphia. In 1819, a 
congregation was gathered in Baltimore ; and others now 
exist in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Charleston, 
Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and other principal cities of the 
Union. The number of churches organized according to 
the Congregational form is reckoned at from 170 to 200. 
Their ministers are chiefly furnished from the divinity 
college of the University of Cambridge, in Massachusetts. 

They are Congregationalists in church government. But, 
besides the Congregational Unitarians, it is computed by 
one of their writers that there are about 2000 congrega- 
tions of Unitarians in this country, chiefly of the sect 
called Christ-ians, the Universalists, and the Friends or 
Quakers. 

Among the periodicals devoted to the interests of Unita- 
rianism, are The Christian Register, a weekly paper ; The 
Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters, and The 
Christian Examiner. 

The American Almanac for 1859 gives to this denomi- 
nation 243 churches, accommodation for 137,367 worship- 
pers, and church property to the amount of $3,268,122. 
14 



158 



UNIVERSALISTS. 



UNIVERSALISTS. 

There are two classes of Christians that have passed 
under this general name — Universalists, so called, and 
Restorationists. They were formerly reckoned one. 

The Restorationists held the doctrine of punishment in 
the future state, but maintained that all mankind would be 
ultimately restored. 

The other class, to which nearly all now called Univer- 
salists belong, maintain that every human being, on dying, 
passes immediately into a state of eternal happiness. They 
are Unitarians in doctrine ; and allege that sin brings its 
own punishment, and consequently that to punish men in 
a future state would be unjust. The early Universalists 
in this country were Restorationists. Of this class was 
Dr. Benneville, of Germantown, Pa., and Rev'd John 
Murray, who came hither from England in 1770. 

In 1780, Rev. Elhanan Winchester, a Baptist preacher, 
embraced the doctrine of Universalism. About ten years 
subsequent to this, the Rev. Hosea Ballou embraced' the 
same doctrine, but on the principles first described in this 
article. He may be properly regarded as the father of 
modern Universalism in the United States. 

The Universalist Expositor gives the following statistics 
of the denomination : 

" The ministry of the Universalist denomination in the 
United States hitherto has been provided for, not so much 
by the means of schools, as by the unaided but irresistible 
influence of the gospel of Christ. This has furnished the 
denomination with its most successful preachers. It has 
turned them from other sects and doctrines, and brought 



UNIVERSALISTS. 



159 



them out from forests and fields, and from secular pursuits 
of almost every kind, and driven them, with inadequate 
literary preparation, to the work of disseminating the 
truth. This state of things has been unavoidable, and the 
effect of it is visible. It has made the ministry of the 
Universalist denomination very different from that of any 
other sect in the country ; studious of the Scriptures, con- 
fident in the truth of their distinguishing doctrine, zealous, 
firm, industrious : depending more on the truths commu- 
nicated for their success, than on the manner in which 
they were stated. It has had the effect, too, to give the 
ministry a polemic character, — the natural result of unwa- 
vering faith in the doctrine believed, and of an introduc- 
tion into the desk without scholastic training. But the 
attention of the denomination in various parts of the coun- 
try has of late been turned to the education of the ministry ; 
and conventions and associations have adopted resolves, 
requiring candidates to pass examinations in certain 
branches of literature. The same motives have governed 
many in their effort to establish literary and theological 
institutions. The desire to have the ministry respectable 
for literary acquirements is universal." 

They have recently engaged in this work. They have 
now, however, only four literary institutions under their 
sole superintendence ; these are located in Clinton, N. Y., 
Philomath, Ind., Westbrook, Me., and Norwich, Vt. 

In 1801, there were only 22 avowed Universalist preach- 
ers in the United States ; at the present time (1859) there 
are about 500. 

In 1779, the first Universalist Society was organized at 
Gloucester, Mass. There are now about 700 societies 
professing the same faith. 

In 1799, the General Convention (organized in 1785) 
was the only association of the clergy. There are now 



160 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 



the General Convention of the United States, 9 state con- 
ventions, and more than 30 associations. 

The first Universalist newspaper in the United States 
(the " Universalist Magazine") was commenced in Boston, 
July 3, 1819, with less than one thousand subscribers. 
There are now 17 periodicals of this description, with an 
aggregate list of about 30,000 subscribers. 

We have not been able to find any reliable account of the 
number of communicants. They have accommodations for 
205,462 worshippers, and about $2,000,000 worth of church 
property. 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 

The Swedenborgians are so called from the late Hon. 
Emanuel Swedenborg, son of Jasper Swedenborg, bishop 
of West-Gothia. He was born at Stockholm, in the year 
1689 ; and died in London, 1772. 

He early enjoyed all the advantages of a liberal educa- 
tion, having studied with great attention in the academy 
of Upsal, and in the universities of England, Holland, 
France, and Germany. Endued with uncommon talents 
for the acquirement of learning, his progress in the sciences 
was rapid and extensive ; and, at an early period in life, 
he distinguished himself by various publications on philo- 
sophical subjects. 

His philosophic studies led him to refer natural pheno- 
mena to spiritual agency, and to suppose that there is a 
close connection between the two worlds of matter and 
spirit. Hence his system teaches us to consider all the 
visible universe, with everything that it contains, as a 
theatre and representation of the invisible world, from 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 



161 



which it first derived its existence, and by connection with 
which it continually subsists. 

Swedenborg's extraordinary genius and learning, ac- 
companied with the purity of his life and uprightness of 
his character, attracted the public notice. Hence he 
received various literary and political honors. These, 
however, he considered of small importance, compared with 
the distinguished privilege of having, as he supposed, his 
spiritual sight opened, and conversing with spirits and 
angels in the spiritual world. 

He first began to have his revelation in London. He 
asserted that, on a certain night, a man appeared to him 
in the midst of a strong shining light, and said, " I am 
God, the Lord, the Creator, and Redeemer ; I have chosen 
thee to explain to men the interior and spiritual sense of the 
sacred writings. I will dictate to thee what thou oughtest 
to write." He affirmed that, after this period, his spiritual 
sight was opened so far that he could see, in the most clear 
and distinct manner, what passed in the spiritual world, 
and converse with angels and spirits in the same manner 
as with men. Accordingly, in his " Treatise concerning 
Heaven and Hell," he relates the wonders which he saw 
in the invisible worlds, and gives an account of various and 
heretofore unknown particulars, relating to the peace, the 
happiness, the light, the order of heaven, together with 
the forms, the functions, the habitations, and even the 
garments of the heavenly inhabitants. He relates his 
conversations with angels, and describes the condition of 
Jews, Mahometans, Christians, clergymen of every deno- 
mination, laity, &c, in the other world. 

Swedenborg called the doctrines which he delivered, 
" The Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem." It 
is thus styled, for, according to his system, the New 
Jerusalem signifies the new church upon earth, which is 
14* L 



162 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 



now about to be established by the Lord, and which is 
particularly described, as to its glory and excellency, in 
Rev. xxi., and many other parts of the sacred word. 

The holy city, or New Jerusalem, he interpreted as 
descriptive of a new dispensation of heavenly truth, break- 
ing through and dissipating the darkness which at this 
day prevails on earth. The laws of divine order, and the 
economy of God's kingdom, providence, and operation, 
will be more clearly and fully understood, and the hearts 
of men will thus be opened to a nearer intercourse with 
heaven, and rendered admissive of the purer influences of 
gospel love and charity in their lives and conversation. 

The following extract contains the general outlines of 
Swedenborg's theological system : 

First. That the Sacred Scripture contains three distinct 
senses, called celestial, spiritual, and natural; and that, 
in each sense, it is divine truth, accommodated respectively 
to the angels of the three heavens, and also to men on 
earth. 

2dly. That there is a correspondence between all things 
in heaven and all things in man ; and that this science of 
correspondences is a key to the spiritual or internal sense 
of the Sacred Scriptures, every page of which is written 
by correspondences, that is, by such things in the natural 
world as correspond unto and signify things in the spiritual 
world. 

3dly. That there is a divine trinity of Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, or, in other words, of the all-begetting Di- 
vinity, (Bivinum a quo) the divine human, and the divine 
proceeding or operation ; and that this trinity consisteth 
not of three distinct persons, but is united, as body, soul, 
and operation in man, in the one person of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, who, therefore, is the God of heaven, and alone to 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 



163 



be worshipped, being Creator from eternity, Redeemer in 
time, and Regenerator to eternity. 

4thly. That redemption consisteth not in the vicarious 
sacrifice of the Redeemer, and an atonement to appease 
the Divine wrath, but in a real subjugation of the powers 
of darkness ; in a restoration of order and good govern- 
ment in the spiritual world; in checking the overgrown 
influences of wicked spirits on the souls of men, and open- 
ing a nearer and clearer communication with the heavenly 
and angelic powers ; in making salvation, which is regene- 
ration, possible for all, who believe on the incarnate God, 
and keep his commandments. 

5thly. That there is an universal influx from God into 
the souls of men. The soul, upon receiving this influx 
from God, transmits it, through the perceptive faculties of 
the mind, to the body. The Lord, with all his divine 
wisdom, consequently with all the essence of faith and 
charity, entereth by influx into every man, but is received 
by every man according to his state and form. Hence it 
is that good influxes from God are changed, by the evil 
nature of their recipients, into their opposites, good into 
evil, and truth into falsehood. 

6thly. That we are placed in this world, subject to the 
influences of two most opposite principles ; of good from 
the Lord and his holy angels ; of evil from hell or evil 
spirits. While we live in this world, our spirits have their 
abode in the spiritual world, where we are kept in a kind 
of spiritual equilibrium by the continual action of those 
contrary powers, in consequence of which, we are at per- 
fect liberty to turn to which we please. That, without 
this free will in spiritual things, regeneration cannot be 
effected. If we submit to God we receive real life from 
him ; if not, we receive that life from hell, which is called 
in Scripture, spiritual death. 



164 



SWEDENBOKGIANS. 



Tthly. That heaven and hell are not arbitrary appoint- 
ments of God. Heaven is a state arising from the good 
affections of the heart, and a correspondence of the words 
and actions, grounded on sincere love to God and man ; 
and hell is the necessary consequence of an evil and 
thoughtless life, enslaved by the vile affections of self-love 
and love of the world without being brought under the 
regulations of heavenly love by a right submission of the 
will, the understanding, and actions, to the truth and 
spirit of heaven. 

8thly. That there is an intermediate state for departed 
souls which is called the world of spirits, and that very 
few pass directly to heaven or hell. This is a state of 
purification to the good ; but to bad spirits it is a state of 
separation of all the extraneous good from the radical evil 
which constitutes the essence of their natures. 

9thly. That, throughout heaven, such as are of like dis- 
positions and qualities are consociated into particular fel- 
lowships ; and such as differ in these respects are separated, 
so that every society in heaven consists of similar members. 

lOthly. That man, immediately on his decease, rises 
again in a spiritual body, which was inclosed in his material 
body ; and that, in this spiritual body, he lives as a man 
to eternity, either in heaven, or in hell, according to the 
quality of his past life. 

llthly. That those passages in the Sacred Scripture 
generally supposed to signify the destruction of the world 
by fire, &c, commonly called the last judgment, must be 
understood according to the above-mentioned science of 
correspondences, which teaches, that by the end of the 
world or consummation of the age, is not signified the 
destruction of the world, but the end or consummation of 
the present Christian church, both among Roman Catholics 
and Protestants of every description and denomination. 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 



165 



That this consummation, which consists in the total falsi- 
fication of the Divine truth, and adulteration of the Divine 
good of the word, has actually taken place ; and, together 
with the establishment of a new church, in place of the 
former, is described in the Revelations, in the internal 
sense of that book ; in which the new church is meant, as 
to its internals, by the new heaven, and as to its externals, 
by the new earth ; also, by the Neiv Jerusalem descending 
by Grod out of heaven. 

It is one of the leading doctrines of Swedenborg, in his 
explanation of the other books of Scripture, that one of 
the principal uses for which the Word is given, is that it 
might be a medium of communication between the Lord 
and man; also, that earth might be thereby conjoined 
with heaven, or human minds with angelic minds ; which 
is effected by correspondences, and natural things with 
spiritual, according to which the Word is written; and 
that, in order to its being divine (divinum verum in 
ultimo), it could not be written otherwise. That hence, 
in many parts of the letter, the Word is clothed with 
appearances of truths accommodated to the apprehension 
of the simple and unlearned ; as, when evil passions are 
attributed to the Lord, and where it is said, that he with- 
holdeth his mercy from man, forsakes him, casts him into 
hell, doeth evil, &c. ; whereas such things do not at all 
belong to the Lord, but are so said, in the same manner 
as we speak of the sun's rising and setting, and other 
natural phenomena, according to the appearance of things, 
or as they appear to the outward senses. To the taking 
up such appearances of truth from the letter of Scripture, 
and making this or that point of faith, derived from them, 
the essential of the church, instead of explaining them by 
doctrine drawn from the genuine truths, which, in other 
parts of the Word, are left naked, Swedenborg ascribes 



166 



SWED ENBORGIANS. 



the various dissensions and heresies which have arisen 
in the church, and which, he says, could not be pre- 
vented, consistently with the preservation of man's free 
agency, both with respect to the exertion of his will, and 
of his understanding. But yet, he says, every one, in 
whatever heresy he may be with respect to the under- 
standing, may still be reformed and saved, provided he 
shuns evils as sins, and does not confirm heretical tastes 
in himself; for, by shunning evils as sins, the will is re- 
formed, and by the will, the understanding, which then 
first emerges out of darkness into light. That the word, 
in its lowest sense, is thus made the medium of salvation 
to those who are obedient to its precepts ; while this sense 
serves to guard its internal sanctities from being violated 
by the wicked and profane, and is represented by the 
cherubim placed at the gates of Eden, and the flaming 
sword turning every way to guard the tree of life. 

His doctrine respecting differences of opinion in the 
church is summed up in these words : " There are three 
essentials of the church : an acknowledgment of the Lord's 
divinity ; an acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word; 
and the life, which is charity. Conformable to his life, 
i. e. to his charity, is every man's real faith. From the 
"Word he hath the knowledge of what his life ought to be ; 
and from the Lord he hath reformation and salvation. If 
these three had been held as essentials of the church, in- 
tellectual dissensions would not have divided it, but would 
only have varied it, as the light varieth colors in beautiful 
objects, and as various jewels constitute the beauty of a 
kingly crown." 

The moral doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church are 
comprised under general heads, collected from Sweden- 
borg's writings, and prefixed to some proposals, published 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 



167 



in England, for the organization and establishment of a 
society. 

Under those general heads, it is proposed to promote 
marriages upon the principles of the new church, which 
are, that true conjugal love consists in the most perfect 
and intimate union of minds, which constitutes one life, as 
the will and understanding are united in one. That this 
love exists only with those who are in states of regenera- 
tion. That, after the decease of conjugal partners of this 
description, they meet, and all the mere natural loves 
being separated, the mental union is perfected, and they 
are exalted into the wisdom and happiness of the angelic 
life. 

Swedenborg founded his doctrines on the spiritual sense 
of the Word of God, which he declared was revealed to 
him immediately from the Lord out of heaven. As his 
language is peculiar, his reasoning cannot be abridged so 
as to be rendered intelligible to the generality of readers. 
Those who are desirous of farther information are referred 
to his numerous and singular productions. 

Those who embrace the tenets of Swedenborg are nu- 
merous in England, Germany, Sweden, &c. Societies 
are also formed in different parts of Europe, for spreading 
his doctrines ; and, where societies have not been formed, 
there are individuals who admire his writings and embrace 
his sentiments, particularly in England, France, Germany, 
Holland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Turkey, and even in the 
East and West Indies, and America. 

Their ecclesiastical order is a mixture of Presbyterian- 
ism and Congregationalism. 

They practise baptism and the Lord's Supper, and use 
confirmation, the solemnization of matrimony, after the 
ordinary ceremony at church, and a burial service. They 
approximate to an independent form of church govern- 



168 



SWEDENB0R6IANS. 



ment, but their discipline is not yet definitely settled. No 
candidate for ordination can be admitted till after lie has 
been baptized into the faith of the new church, the formula 
of which is — " I baptize thee into the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." 

The first person who introduced Swedenborgianism into 
this country was a Mr. Glen, who delivered lectures on the 
subject in Philadelphia, in 1784. The first American min- 
ister was ordained in 1798. Their increase has been slow. 

There is a General Convention of the New Jerusalem 
Church in the United States, in which are represented 
associations in the States of Illinois, Maine, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, besides 4 isolated 
societies ; and there are receivers of Swedenborg's doc- 
trines scattered through all the other States. The number 
of ordaining ministers connected with the General Con- 
vention, is 6 ; pastors and missionaries, 29 ; licentiates 
and ministers, 14. 

There are many societies not connected with the Gene- 
ral Convention. There are probably not more than 15 or 
20 church edifices belonging to this denomination in the 
United States, and the number of communicants probably 
does not exceed 10,000. The Journal of Proceedings of 
the General Convention furnishes no information as to the 
aggregate number of believers. 



10 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



169 



EOMAN CATHOLICS. 

Although, in ordinary language, the name Roman 
Catholic Church is often used to designate the ruling au- 
thority or power in the Catholic religion, as if distinct from 
the members of that communion, yet the definition which 
Catholics give of the Church is such as to comprehend the 
entire body of its members as well as its rulers, the flock 
as much as the shepherds. Thus we hear of Catholics 
being under the dominion of their Church, or obliged to 
obey it, as though it were something distinct from them- 
selves, or as if they were not a part of their Church. This 
preliminary remark is made to explain a certain vagueness 
of expression, which often leads to misapprehension, and 
serves as the basis of incorrect ideas regarding the pecu- 
liar doctrines of that Church — a vagueness similar to what 
is frequent in writing and speaking on jurisprudence ; as, 
for example, where the government of a country is consi- 
dered as a power distinct and almost at variance with the 
nation which it rules, and not an integral part thereof. 

The Catholic Church, therefore, is defined to be the 
community of the faithful united to their lawful pastors, 
in communion with the see of Rome or with the Pope, the 
successor of St. Peter, and vicar of Christ on earth. 

Simply developing the terms of this definition, we will 
give a brief sketch of the constitution or fundamental sys- 
tem of this Church, under the heads of its government, 
its laws, and its vital or constitutive principle. 

I. The government of the Catholic Church may be con- 
sidered monarchical, inasmuch as the Pope is held in it to 
be the ruler over the entire Church, and the most distant 
15 



170 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



bishop of the Catholic Church holds his appointment from 
him, and receives from him his authority. No bishop can 
be considered lawfully consecrated without his approbation. 
The dignity or office of Pope is inherent in the occupant 
of the see of Rome, because the supremacy over the Church 
is believed to be held in virtue of a commission given to 
St. Peter, not as his own personal prerogative, but as a part 
of the constitution of the Church, for its advantage, and 
therefore intended to descend to his successors — as the 
episcopal power did from the apostles to those who suc- 
ceeded them in their respective sees. 

The election of the Pope, therefore, devolves upon the 
clergy of Rome, as being their bishop ; and it is confided 
to the college of cardinals, who, bearing the titles of the 
eldest churches in that city, represent its clergy, and form 
their chapter or electoral body. The meeting or chapter 
formed for this purpose alone is called a conclave. The 
cardinals are in their turn appointed by the Pope, and 
compose the executive council of the Church. They pre- 
side over the various departments of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment, and are divided into boards or congregations, as 
they are called, for the transaction of business from all 
parts of the world ; but every decision is subject to the 
Pope's revision, and has no value except from his appro- 
bation. 

On some occasions they are all summoned together to 
meet the Pope on affairs of higher importance, as for the 
nomination of bishops, or the admission of new members 
into their body; and then the assembly is called a consis- 
tory. The full number of cardinals is seventy-two, but 
there are always some hats left vacant. 

The Catholic Church being essentially episcopal, is go- 
verned by bishops, who are of two sorts, bishops in ordi- 
nary, and vicars apostolic. By the first are meant titular 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



171 



bishops, or such as bear the name of the see over which 
they rule ; as the Archbishop of Paris, or of Dublin ; the 
Bishop of Cambray or New Orleans. The manner of ap- 
pointing such bishops varies considerably. Where they 
are unshackled by the government, the clergy of the dio- 
cese meet in chapter, according to old forms, and having 
selected three names, forward them to the Holy See, where 
one is chosen for promotion. This is the case in Ireland, 
Belgium, and perhaps in the free states of America. In 
most countries, however, the election of bishops is regu- 
lated by concordat; that is, a special agreement between 
the Pope and the civil government. The presentation is 
generally vested in the crown ; but the appointment must 
necessarily emanate from the Pope. 

The powers of bishops, and the manner of exercising 
their authority, are regulated by the canon law; their 
jurisdiction on every point is clear and definite, and leaves 
no room for arbitrary enactments or oppressive measures. 
Yet it is of such a character as, generally considered, can 
perfectly control the inferior orders of clergy, and secure 
them to the discharge of their duty. In most Catholic 
countries there is a certain degree of civil jurisdiction al- 
lowed to the bishops, with judicial powers, in matters of a 
mixed character ; as in cases appertaining to marriages, 
where a distinction between civil and ecclesiastical mar- 
riage has not been drawn by the legislature. Some of- 
fences connected with religion, as blasphemy or domestic 
immorality, are likewise brought under their cognizance. 

Where the succession of the Catholic hierarchy has been 
interrupted, as in England, or never been established, as 
in Australasia or some parts of India, the bishops who 
superintend the Catholic Church, and represent the papal 
authority, are known by the name of vicars apostolic. A 
vicar apostolic is not necessarily a bishop — an instance of 



172 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



which we have now at Calcutta, where the vicar apostolic 
is a simple priest. Generally, however, he receives epis- 
copal consecration ; and as, from local circumstances, it is 
not thought expedient that he should bear the title of the 
see which he administers, he is appointed with the title of 
an ancient bishopric now in the hands of infidels, and thus 
is called a bishop in partibus infidelium, though the last 
word is often omitted in ordinary language. A vicar apos- 
tolic, being generally situated where the provisions of the 
canon law cannot be fully observed, is guided by particular 
instructions, by precedents and consuetude, to all which 
the uniformity of discipline through the Catholic Church 
gives stability and security. Thus the vicars apostolic, 
who rule over the four episcopal districts of England, have 
their code in the admirable constitution of Pope Benedict 
XIV., beginning with the words Apostolicum ministerium. 
The powers of a vicar apostolic are necessarily more ex- 
tended than those of ordinary bishops, and are ampler in 
proportion to the difficulty of keeping up a close commu- 
nication with Rome. Thus, many cases of dispensation in 
marriage which a continental bishop must send to the 
Holy See, may be provided for by an English or American 
vicar apostolic ; and other similar matters, for which these 
must consult it, could at once be granted by the ecclesi- 
astical superiors of the Mauritius or of China. The nomi- 
nation of vicars apostolic is solely with the Pope. 

The inferior clergy, considered in reference to the gov- 
ernment of the Church, consists mainly of the parochial 
clergy, or those who supply their place. In all countries 
possessing a hierarchy, the country is divided into parishes, 
each provided with a parockus or curate,* corresponding 



* To avoid mistakes, we may observe that the parish priest in Ire- 
land corresponds to the cure in France, the curato (or, in the coun- 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



173 



to the rector or vicar of the English Established Church. 
The appointment to a parish is vested in the bishop, who 
has no power to remove again at will, or for any cause 
except a canonical offence juridically proved. The right 
of presentation by lay patrons is, however, in particular 
instances, fully respected. In Italy the parish priests are 
generally chosen by competition ; as, upon a vacancy, a 
day is appointed on which the testimonials of the different 
candidates are compared, and they themselves personally 
examined before the bishop in theology, the exposition of 
Scripture, and extemporaneous preaching ; and whoever is 
pronounced, by ballot, superior to the rest, is chosen. 

Under an apostolic vicariate, the clergy corresponding * 
to the parochial clergy generally bear the title of apostolic 
missionaries, and have missions or local districts, with 
variable limits, placed under their care; but are dependent 
upon the will of their ecclesiastical superiors. 

Besides the parochial clergy, there is a considerable 
body of ecclesiastics, who do not enter directly into the 
governing part of the Church, although they help to dis- 
charge some of its most important functions. A great 
number of secular clergy are devoted to the conduct of 
education, either in universities or seminaries ; many oc- 
cupy themselves exclusively with the pulpit, others with 
instructing the poor, or attending charitable institutions. 
A certain number also fill prebends, or attend to the daily 
service of cathedrals, etc. ; for in the Catholic Church, 
pluralities, where the cure of souls exists, are strictly pro- 
hibited, and consequently a distinct body of clergy from 
those engaged in parochial duties, or holding rectories, 
etc., is necessary for those duties. Besides this auxiliary 

try, arciprete) of Italy, and the cura of Spain. The curate in Ire- 
land, as in the church of England, is equivalent to the vicaire of 
France and the sotto-curato of Italy. 
15* 



174 



ROMAN CATHOL ICS. 



force, the regular clergy, or monastic orders, take upon 
them many of these functions. The clergy of the Catho- 
lic Church in the west are bound by a vow of celibacy, not 
formally made, but implied in their ordination as sub-dea- 
cons. This obligation of celibacy is only reckoned among 
the disciplinary enactments of the Church. The clergy 
of that portion of the Greek and Armenian church which 
is united in communion with the see of Rome, may be mar- 
ried ; that is, may receive orders if married, but are not 
allowed to marry after having taken orders. A similar 
discipline, if thought expedient by the Church, might be 
introduced into the west. 

The only point concerning the government of the Catho- 
lic Church which remains to be mentioned is the manner 
in which it is exercised. The most solemn tribunal is a 
general council, that is, an assembly of all the bishops of 
the Church, who may attend either in person or by deputy, 
under the presidency of the Pope or his legates. When 
once a decree has passed such an assembly, and received 
the approbation of the Holy See, there is no further appeal. 
Distinction must be, however, made between doctrinal and 
disciplinary decrees ; for example, when in the council of 
Trent it was decreed to be the doctrine of the Church, that 
marriage is indissoluble, this decree is considered binding 
in the belief and on the conduct, nor can its acceptance be 
refused by any one without his being considered rebellious 
to the Church. But when it is ordered that marriages 
must be celebrated only in presence of the parish priest, 
this is a matter of discipline, not supposed to rest on the 
revelation of God, but dictated by prudence ; and conse- 
quently a degree of toleration is allowed regarding the 
adoption of the resolution in particular dioceses. It is 
only with regard to such decrees, and more specifically the 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



175 



one we have mentioned, that the council of Trent is said 
to have been received, or not, in different countries. 

When a general council cannot be summoned, or when 
it is not deemed necessary, the general government of the 
Church is conducted by the Pope, whose decisions in mat- 
ters of discipline are considered paramount, though par- 
ticular sees and countries claim certain special privileges 
and exemptions. In matters of faith it is admitted that 
if he issue a decree, as it is called, ex cathedrd, or as head 
of the Church, and all the bishops accept it, such definition 
or decree is binding and final.* 

The discipline or reformation of smaller divisions is per- 
formed by provincial or diocesan synods. The first consist 
of the bishops of a province under their metropolitan ; the 
latter of the parochial and other clergy under the superin- 
tendence of the bishop. The forms to be observed in such 
assemblies, the subjects which may be discussed, and the 
extent of jurisdiction which may be assumed, are laid down 
at full in a beautiful work of the learned Benedict XIV., 
entitled "De Synodo Diocesana." The acts and decrees 
of many such partial synods have been published, and are 
held in high esteem among Catholics ; indeed, they may 
be recommended as beautiful specimens of deliberative 
wisdom. Such are the decrees of the various synods held 
at Milan under the virtuous and amiable St. Charles Bor- 
romeo. 

II. The laws of the Catholic Church may be divided into 
two classes, those which bind the interior, and those which 

* The great difference between the Transalpine and Cisalpine 
divines, as they are termed, is whether such a decree has its force 
prior to, or independent of, the accession of the body of bishops to 
it, or receives its sanction and binding power from their acceptance. 
Practically there is little or no difference between the two opinions; 
yet this slight variety forms a principal groundwork of what are 
called the liberties of the Gallican church. 



176 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



regulate outward conduct. This distinction, which corre- 
sponds to that above made, between doctrinal and discipli- 
nary decrees, may appear unusual, as the term laws seems 
hardly applicable to forms of thought or belief. Still, view- 
ing, as we have done, the Catholic Church under the form 
of an organized religious society, and considering that it 
professes to be divinely authorized to exact interior assent 
to all that it teaches, under the penalty of being separated 
from its communion, we think we can well classify under 
the word law those principles and doctrines which it com- 
mands and expects all its members to profess. 

Catholics often complain that doctrines are laid to their 
charge which they do not hold, and in their various publi- 
cations protest against their belief being assumed upon any 
but authoritative documents ; and as such works are per- 
fectly accessible, the complaint must appear reasonable as 
well as just. There are several works in which an accurate 
account is given of what Catholics are expected to believe, 
and which carefully distinguish between those points on 
which latitude of opinion is allowed, and such as have 
been fully and decisively decreed by the supreme authority 
of the Church. Such are Yeron's "Regula Fidei," or 
Rule of Faith, a work lately translated into English, and 
Holden's "Analysis Fidei." But there are documents of 
more authority than these; for example, the " Declaration" 
set forth by the vicars apostolic or bishops in England, in 
1823, often republished ; and still more the " Catechismus 
ad Parochos," or " Catechism of the Council of Trent," 
translated into English not many years ago, and published 
in Dublin. A perusal of such works as these will satisfy 
those who are desirous of full and accurate information 
regarding Catholic tenets, of their real nature, and show 
that the popular expositions of their substance and char- 
acter are generally incorrect. 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



177 



The formulary of faith, which persons becoming mem- 
bers of the Catholic Church are expected to recite, and 
which is sworn to upon taking any degree, or being ap- 
pointed to a chair in a university, is the creed of Pius 
IV., of which the following is the substance : 

The preamble runs as follows : " I, N. N., with a firm 
faith believe and profess all and every one of those things 
which are contained in that creed, which the holy Roman 
Church maketh use of." Then follows the Nicene creed. 

44 1 most steadfastly admit and embrace apostolical and 
ecclesiastical traditions, and all other observances and con- 
stitutions of the same Church. 

44 1 also admit the Holy Scriptures, according to that 
sense which our holy mother the Church has held and does 
hold, to which it belongs to judge of the true sense and 
interpretation of the Scriptures ; neither will I ever take 
and interpret them otherwise than according to the unani- 
mous consent of the fathers. 

44 1 also profess that there are truly and properly seven 
sacraments of the new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our 
Lord, and necessary for the salvation of mankind, though 
not all for every one, to wit : baptism, confirmation, the 
eucharist, penance,* extreme unction, holy orders, f and 
matrimony ; and that they confer grace ; and that of these, 
baptism, confirmation, and orders cannot be reiterated with- 

* Under penance is included confession ; as the Catholic sacra- 
ment of penance consists of three parts : contrition or sorrow, con- 
fession, and satisfaction. 

f The clerical orders of the Catholic Church are divided into two 
classes, sacred and minor orders. The first consists of subdeacons, 
deacons, and priests, who are bound to celibacy and the daily reci- 
tation of the Breviary, or collection of psalms and prayers, occupy- 
ing a considerable time. The minor orders are four in number, and 
are preceded by the tonsure, an ecclesiastical ceremony in which the 
hair is shorn, initiatory to the ecclesiastical state. 

M 



178 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



out sacrilege. I also receive and admit the received and 
approved ceremonies of the Catholic Church, used in the 
solemn administration of the aforesaid sacraments. 

"I embrace and receive all and every one of the things 
which have been defined and declared in the holy Council 
of Trent, concerning original sin and justification. 

" I profess likewise that in the mass there is offered to 
God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the liv- 
ing and the dead ; and that in the most holy sacrament of 
the eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially, the 
body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our 
Lord Jesus Christ ; and that there is made a change of the 
whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the 
whole substance of the wine into the blood, which change 
the Catholic Church calls transubstantiation. I also con- 
fess that under either kind alone Christ is received whole 
and entire, and a true sacrament. 

" I firmly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the 
souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the 
faithful. 

" Likewise, that the saints reigning with Christ are to 
be honored and invocated, and that they offer up prayers 
to God for us ; and that their relics are to be had in vene- 
ration. 

" I most firmly assert that the images of Christ, of the 
mother of God, and also of other saints, ought to be had 
and retained, and that due honor and veneration are to be 
given them. 

" I also affirm that the power of indulgences was left by 
Christ in the Church, and that the use of them is most 
wholesome to Christian people. 

" I acknowledge the holy Catholic Apostolic Roman 
Church for the mother and mistress of all churches ; and 
I promise true obedience to the Bishop of Eome, successor 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



179 



to St. Peter, prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus 
Christ." 

Then follow clauses condemnatory of all contrary doc- 
trines, and expressive of adhesion to all the definitions of 
the Council of Trent. 

It is obvious that this form of confession was framed in 
accordance to the decrees of that council, and consequently 
has chiefly in view the opinions of those who followed the 
Reformation. It would be foreign to our purpose to enter 
into any explanations of the doctrines here laid down, 
much less into any statement of the grounds on which 
Catholics hold them, as we purposely refrain from all po- 
lemical discussion. 

Such is the doctrinal code of the Catholic Church ; of 
its moral doctrines we need not say anything, because no 
authorized document could be well referred to that embo- 
dies them all. There are many decrees of Popes condem- 
natory of immoral opinions or propositions, but no positive 
decrees. Suffice it to say, that the moral law, as taught 
in the Catholic Church, is mainly the same as other deno- 
minations of Christians profess to follow. 

Of the disciplinary or governing code we have already 
spoken, when we observed that it consisted of the Canon 
Law, which, unlike the doctrinal and moral code, may 
vary with time, place, and accidental circumstances. 

III. Our last head was the essential or constitutive 
principle of the Catholic Church. By this we mean that 
principle which gives it individuality, distinguishes it from 
other religions, pervades all its institutions, and gives the 
answer to every query regarding the peculiar constitution 
outward and inward of this Church. 

Now, the fundamental position, the constitutive princi- 
ple of the Catholic Church, is the doctrine and belief that 
God has promised, and consequently bestows upon it, a 



180 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



constant and perpetual protection, to the extent of guar- 
anteeing it from destruction, from error, or fatal corrup- 
tion. This principle once admitted, everything else fol- 
lows. 1. The infallibility of the Church in its decisions on 
matters concerning faith. 2. The obligation of submitting 
to all these decisions, independently of men's own private 
judgments or opinions. 3. The authority of tradition, or 
the unalterable character of all the doctrines committed to 
the Church ; and hence the persuasion that those of its 
dogmas which to others appear strange and unscriptural, 
have been in reality handed down, uncorrupted, since the 
time of the apostles, who received them from Christ's 
teaching. 4. The necessity of religious unity, by perfect 
uniformity of belief; and thence, as a corollary, the sin- 
fulness of wilful separation or schism, and culpable errors 
or heresy. 5. Government by authority, since they who 
are aided and supported by such a promise must necessa- 
rily be considered appointed to direct others, and are held 
as the representatives and vicegerents of Christ in the 
Church. 6. The papal supremacy, whether considered as 
a necessary provision for the preservation of this essential 
unity, or as the principal depository of the divine pro- 
mises. 7. In fine, the authority of councils, the right to 
enact canons and ceremonies, the duty of repressing all 
attempts to broach new opinions ; in a word, all that sys- 
tem of rule and authoritative teaching which must strike 
every one as the leading feature in the constitution of the 
Catholic Church. 

The differences, therefore, between this and other reli- 
gions, however complicated and numerous they may at 
first sight appear, are thus in truth narrowed to one ques- 
tion ; for particular doctrines must share the fate of the 
dogmas above cited, as forming the constitutive principle 
of the Catholic religion. This religion claims for itself a 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



181 



complete consistency from its first principle to its last con- 
sequence, and to its least institution, and finds fault with 
others, as though they preserved forms, dignities, and doc- 
trines which must have sprung from a principle by them 
rejected, but which are useless and mistaken, the moment 
they are disjoined from it. Be this as it may, the consti- 
tution of the Catholic Church should seem to possess what 
is essential to every moral organized body — a principle of 
vitality which accounts for all its actions, and determines 
at once the direction and the intensity of all its functions. 

To conclude our account of the Catholic Church, we 
will give a slight view of the extent of its dominions, by 
enumerating the countries which profess its doctrines, or 
which contain considerable communities under its obedi- 
ence. In Europe, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Bel- 
gium, the Austrian empire, including Hungary, Bavaria, 
Poland, and the Rhenish provinces of Prussia, which for- 
merly belonged to the ecclesiastical electorates, profess the 
Catholic religion as that of the state, or, according to the 
expression of the French chart e, that of the majority of 
the people. In America, all the countries which once 
formed part of the Spanish dominions, both in the south- 
ern and northern portion of the continent, and which are 
now independent states, profess exclusively the same reli- 
gion. The empire of Brazil is also Catholic. Lower 
Canada, and all those islands in the West Indies which 
belong to Spain or France, including the Republic of 
Hayti, profess the Catholic faith ; and there are also con- 
siderable Catholic communities in the United States of 
North America. Many Indian tribes, in the Canadas, in 
the United States, and in South America, have embraced 
the same faith. In Asia there is hardly any nation pro- 
fessing Christianity which does not contain large commu- 
nities of Catholic Christians. Thus, in Syria the entire 
16 



182 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



nation or tribe of the Maronites, dispersed over Mount 
Libanus, are subjects of the Roman see, governed by a 
patriarch and bishops appointed by it. There are also 
other Syriac Christians under other bishops, united to the 
same see, who are dispersed all over Palestine and Syria. 
At Constantinople there is a Catholic Armenian patriarch, 
who governs the united Armenians, as they are called, 
large communities of whom also exist in Armenia proper. 
The Abbe' Dubois, in his examination before a committee 
of the English House of Commons, in 1832, stated the 
number of Catholics in the Indian peninsula at 600,000, 
including Ceylon ; and this number is perhaps rather un- 
derrated than otherwise. They are governed by four 
bishops, and four vicars apostolic with episcopal consecra- 
tion. A new one has been added for Ceylon. We have 
not the means of ascertaining the number of Catholics in 
China; but in the province of Su-Chuen alone they were 
returned, September 22, 1824, at 47,487 (Annales de la 
Propag. de la Foi, No. XL, p. 257); and an official re- 
port published at Rome, in the same year, gives those in 
the provinces of Fo-kien and Kiansi at 40,000. There 
are seven other provinces containing a considerable num- 
ber of Catholics, of which we have no return. In the 
united empire of Tonkin and Cochin-China, the Catholics 
of one district were estimated at 200,000 (Ibid., No. X., 
p. 194) ; and, till the late persecution, there was a college 
with 200 students, and convents containing 700 religious. 
Another district gave a return, in 1826, of 2955 infants 
baptized, which would give an estimate of 88,000 adult 
Christians. A third gave a return of 170,000. M. Du- 
bois estimated the number of native Catholics in the Phi- 
lippine Islands at 2,000,000. In Africa, the islands of 
Mauritius and Bourbon are Catholic, and all the Portu- 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



183 



guese settlements on the coasts, as well as the Azores, 
Madeira, the Cape Verde, and the Canary Islands. 

The history of the Roman Catholics in this country be- 
gins with the discovery of Columbus, the Roman Catholic 
subject of a Roman Catholic government. Their first im- 
portant movement in gaining a footing within the present 
boundaries of the United States was made by Lord Balti- 
more. He obtained from Charles I. the charter of Mary- 
land, and appointed his brother Leonard Calvert to be 
governor of the new colony. The first body of emigrants 
consisted of about two hundred gentlemen of rank and for- 
tune. They reached the shores of the Potomac in 1632. 

The early missions of this denomination extended to all 
the principal tribes of the aborigines, and explored the 
countries of the great lakes and the Mississippi. That 
portion of the Roman Catholics which have descended from 
the early settlers of the country are comparatively liberal 
in their views, and many of them except to the exclusive 
spirit of the ancient hierarchy, and allow their Protestant 
brethren to be good Christians, so far as they adorn the 
Christian faith by a devout and charitable spirit. In the 
early settlement of Louisiana nearly all the people were 
Roman Catholics. The laws were originally made to favor 
that form of religion. They have been gradually changed 
or relaxed in their administration. So late, however, as 
1834 or 1835, the Presbyterian church in New Orleans 
was not allowed to ring its bell for a week-day evening 
service, on the ground of an old law which restricted that 
right to the Roman Catholic churches. Yet, it ought to be 
said in perfect fairness that the Roman Catholics were not 
the persons to request the enforcement of the odious law. 
Its execution was threatened only by Protestants, and the 
Protestant council of the second municipality refused to 
grant the permission which the law gave them power to 



184 



ROMAN CATHOLICS. 



grant as a special favor. Probably no portion of our popu- 
lation are more perfectly tolerant in their principles and 
feelings than the Roman Catholics of Louisiana. 

From the period of the early settlement of Maryland 
and the banks of the Mississippi, there was but a slight 
increase of the people of this persuasion till within the last 
twenty years. 

Lately the tide of foreign immigration has greatly 
swollen, and the increase of Roman Catholics is rapid. 
They now constitute more than one-twentieth of our popu- 
lation. Considering, however, the excess of Protestant in- 
crease from births and immigration, and the great mortality 
of the poor foreigners, it is doubted whether the ratio of 
increase of Roman Catholics is as great as that of the 
Protestants. 

It ought also to be acknowledged with thankfulness to 
God, that in all their published declarations the Roman 
Catholic priesthood express their distinct disapprobation 
of all violence and unfairness in enforcing the claims of 
their religion. One of their gifted writers says, "If it 
[proselytism] imply the use of any means that are unfair, 
unhandsome, dishonorable, or uncharitable ; of violence, 
bribery, false arguments, or any other means whatsoever 
than such as are dictated by the strictest truth and ani- 
mated by pure benevolence, then, indeed, is proselytism as 
odious as it is unchristian ; then, be it far from every 
Catholic and from every Christian. Be it hated and 
detested by every lover of honesty, of truth, and of 
charity." 

The Roman Catholics have numerous institutions of 
learning, nunneries, orphan asylums, and various founda- 
tions of charity. Their colleges have accomplished pro- 
fessors, but they have never been able to place themselves 
on an equality with such institutions as Princeton and Yale 



PURITANS. 



185 



colleges and Harvard University. Their female schools 
are more effective, because distinguished for the cultivation 
of those branches of learning and art which adorn the 
feminine character. 

They have now (1860) in the United States, 32 Theolo- 
gical Seminaries, 7 Preparatory Seminaries, 30 colleges, 27 
periodical publications, 2,108 clergymen, 1,978 churches, 
and the Catholic population is estimated at 2,500,000. In 
the British Provinces, 619 churches, 369 clergymen, and 
1,017,000 Catholic population. 

The growth of this denomination appears of late years 
to have been very rapid ; and this circumstance is probably 
owing to the large immigration from Europe. 



PURITANS. 

The name Puritans was given in the primitive Church 
to the Novatians, because they would never admit to com- 
munion any one who, from dread of death, had apostatized 
from the faith ; but the word has been chiefly applied to 
those who were professed favorers of a further degree of 
reformation and purity in the Church before the Act of 
Uniformity, in 1662. After this period, the term Non- 
conformists became common, to which succeeds the appel- 
lation Dissenter. 

" During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in which the 
royal prerogative was carried to its utmost limits, there 
were found many daring spirits who questioned the right 
of the sovereign to prescribe and dictate to her subjects 
what principles of religion they should profess, and what 
forms they ought to adhere to. The ornaments and habits 
16 * 



186 



PURITANS. 



worn by the clergy in the preceding reign, when the 
Romish religion and rites were triumphant, Elizabeth was 
desirous of preserving in the Protestant service. This 
was the cause of great discontent among a large body of 
her subjects ; multitudes refused to attend at those churches 
where the habits and ceremonies were used ; the conform- 
ing clergy they treated with contumely; and, from the 
superior purity and simplicity of the modes of worship to 
which they adhered, they obtained the name of Puritans. 
The Queen made many attempts to repress everything that 
appeared to her as an innovation in the religion established 
by her authority, but without success ; by her almost un- 
limited authority she readily checked open and avowed 
opposition, but she could not extinguish the principles of 
the Puritans, ' by whom alone,' according to Mr. Hume, 
' the precious spark of liberty had been kindled and was 
preserved, and to whom the English owe the whole freedom 
of their constitution.' Some secret attempts that had 
been made by them to establish a separate congregation 
and discipline, had been carefully repressed by the strict 
hand which Elizabeth held over all her subjects. The 
most, therefore, that they could effect was to assemble in 
private houses for the purpose of worshipping God accord- 
ing to the dictates of their own consciences. These prac- 
tices were at first connived at, but afterwards every means 
was taken to suppress them, and the most cruel methods 
were made use of to discover persons who were disobedient 
to the royal pleasure. 

The severe persecutions carried on against the Puritans 
during the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, served to 
lay the foundation of a new empire in the western world. 
Thither, as into a wilderness, they fled from the face of 
their persecutors, and, being protected in the free exercise 
of their religion, continued to increase, till in about a cen- 



PURITANS. 



187 



tury and a half they became an independent nation. The 
different principles, however, on which they originally 
divided from the Church establishment at home, operated 
in a way that might have been expected when they came 
to the possession of the civil power abroad. Those who 
formed the colony of Massachusetts Bay, having never 
relinquished the principles of a national Church, and of 
the power of the civil magistrate in matters of faith and 
worship, were less tolerant than those who settled at New 
Plymouth, at Rhode Island, and at Providence Plantations. 
The very men (and they were good men too) who had just 
escaped the persecutions of the English prelates, now in 
their turn persecuted others who dissented from them, till 
at length the liberal system of toleration established in 
the parent country at the Kevolution, extending to the 
colonies, in a good measure put an end to these pro- 
ceedings. 

Neither the Puritans, before the passing of the Bartho- 
lomew act, in 1662, nor the Nonconformists, after it, ap- 
pear to have disapproved of the articles of the established 
Church in matters of doctrine. The number of those who 
did so, however, was very small. While the great body 
of the bishops and clergy had, from the days of Archbishop 
Laud, abandoned their own articles in favor of Arminian- 
ism, they were attached to the principles of the first Re- 
formers ; and by their labors and sufferings the spirit of 
the Reformation was kept alive in the land. But after 
the Revolution, one part of the Protestant Dissenters, 
chiefly Presbyterians, first veered towards Arminianism, 
then revived the Arian controversy, and by degrees many 
of them settled in Socinianism. At the same time another 
part of them, chiefly Independents and Baptists, earnestly 
contending for the doctrines of grace, and conceiving, as 
it would seem, that the danger of erring lay entirely on 



188 



BROWNISTS. 



one side, first veered towards high Calvinism ; then forbore 
inviting the unregenerate to repent, believe, or do any- 
thing practically good, and by degrees many of them, it 
is said, settled in Antinomianism. 

Such are the principles which have found place amongst 
the descendants of the Puritans. At the same time, how- 
ever, it must be acknowledged that a goodly number of 
each of the three denominations have adhered to the doc- 
trine and spirit of their forefathers ; and have proved the 
efficacy of their principles by their concern to be holy in 
all manner of conversation. See articles Brownists, 
Independents, and Nonconformists, in this work. 



BROWNISTS, 

A sect that arose among the Puritans towards the close 
of the sixteenth century ; so named from their leader, Ro- 
bert Brown. He was educated at Cambridge, and was a 
man of good parts and some learning. He began to inveigh 
openly against the ceremonies of the church, at Norwich, 
in 1580 : but being much opposed by the bishops, he, with 
his congregation, left England, and settled at Middleburgh, 
in Zealand, where they obtained leave to worship God in 
their own way, and form a church according to their own 
model. They soon, however, began to differ among them- 
selves ; so that Brown, growing weary of his office, re- 
turned to England, in 1589, renounced his principles of 
separation, and was preferred to the rectory of a church in 
Northamptonshire. He died in prison in 1630. The revolt 
of Brown was attended with the dissolution of the church 
at Middleburgh ; but the seeds of Brownism which he had 



BR OWN! ST S. 



189 



sown in England were so far from being destroyed, that 
Sir Walter Raleigh, in a speech in 1592, computes no less 
than 20,000 of this sect. 

The articles of their faith seem to be nearly the same as 
those of the church of England. The occasion of their 
separation was not, therefore, any fault they found with the 
faith, but only with the discipline and form of government 
of the churches in England. They equally charged cor- 
ruption on the Episcopal and Presbyterian forms ; nor 
would they join with any other reformed church, because 
they were not assured of the sanctity and regeneration of 
the members that composed it. They condemned the solemn 
celebration of marriages in the church, maintaining that 
matrimony being a political contract, the confirmation 
thereof ought to come from the civil magistrate ; an opin- 
ion in which they are not singular. They would not allow 
the children of such as were not members of the church to 
be baptized. They rejected all forms of prayer, and held 
that the Lord's prayer was not to be recited as a prayer, 
being only given for a rule or model whereon all our pray- 
ers are to be formed. Their form of church government 
was nearly as follows : When a church was to be gathered, 
such as desired to be members of it made a confession of 
their faith in the presence of each other, and signed a cove- 
nant, by which they obliged themselves to walk together in 
the order of the Gospel. The whole power of admitting 
and excluding members, with the decision of all controver- 
sies, was lodged in the brotherhood. Their church officers 
were chosen from among themselves, and separated to their 
several offices by fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands. 
But they did not allow the priesthood to be any distinct 
order. As the vote of the brethren made a man a minister, 
so the same power could discharge him from his office, and 
reduce him to a mere layman again ; and as they main- 



190 



BROWNISTS. 



tained the bounds of a church to be no greater than what 
could meet together in one place, and join in one commu- 
nion, so the power of these officers was prescribed within 
the same limits. The minister of one church could not 
administer the Lord's Supper to another, nor baptize the 
children of any but those of his own society. Any lay 
brother was allowed the liberty of giving a word of exhor- 
tation to the people ; and it was usual for some of them 
after sermon to ask questions, and reason upon the doc- 
trines that had been preached. In a word, every church 
on their model is a body corporate, having full power to 
do everything in themselves, without being accountable to 
any class, synod, convocation, or other jurisdiction what- 
ever. The reader will judge how near the Independent 
churches are allied to this form of government. See Inde- 
pendents. The laws were executed with great severity on 
the Brownists ; their books were prohibited by queen Eli- 
zabeth, their persons imprisoned, and some hanged. Brown 
himself declared on his death-bed that he had been in thirty- 
two different prisons, in some of which he could not see his 
hand at noon-day. They were so much persecuted, that 
they resolved at last to quit the country. Accordingly, 
many retired and settled at Amsterdam, where they formed 
a church, and chose Mr. Johnson their pastor, and after 
him, Mr. Ainsworth, author of the learned Commentary on 
the Pentateuch. Their church flourished near 100 years. 
Among the Brownists, too, were the famous John Bobin- 
son, a part of whose congregation from Leyden, in Holland, 
made the first permanent settlement in North America ; 
and the laborious Canne, the author of the marginal refer- 
ences to the Bible. 



INDEPENDENTS. 



191 



THE INDEPENDENTS 

Are a sect of Protestants, so called from their maintaining 
that each congregation of Christians which meet in one 
house for public worship is a complete church ; has suffi- 
cient power to act and perform everything relating to reli- 
gious government within itself ; and is in no respect subject 
or accountable to other churches. 

Though the Episcopalians contend that there is not a 
shadow of the independent discipline to be found either in 
the Bible or the primitive church, the Independents, on the 
contrary, believe that it is most clearly to be deduced from 
the practice of the apostles in planting the first churches. 
The Independents, however, were not distinguished as a 
body till the time of queen Elizabeth. The hierarchy esta- 
blished by that princess in the churches of her dominions, 
the vestments worn by the clergy in the celebration of 
divine worship, the book of Common Prayer, and, above 
all, the sign of the cross used in the administration of bap- 
tism, were very offensive to many of her subjects, who, 
during the persecutions of the former reign, had taken 
refuge among the Protestants of Germany and Geneva. 
These men thought that the church of England resembled 
in too many particulars the anti-christian church of Rome ; 
they therefore called perpetually for a more thorough re- 
formation, and a 'purer worship. From this circumstance 
they were stigmatized with the general name of Puritans, 
as the followers of Novatian had been in the ancient church. 
Elizabeth was not disposed to comply with their demands ; 
and it is difficult to say what might have been the issue of 
the contest, had the Puritans been united among them- 



192 



INDEPENDENTS. 



selves in sentiments, views, and measures. But the case 
was quite otherwise : that large body, composed of persons 
of different ranks, character, opinions, and intentions, and 
unanimous in nothing but their antipathy to the Esta- 
blished Church, was all of a sudden divided into a variety of 
sects. Of these the most famous was that which was formed 
about the year 1581, by Robert Brown, a man insinuating 
in his manners, but unsteady and inconsistent in his views 
and actions of men and things. Brown was for dividing 
the whole body of the faithful into separate societies or 
congregations ; and maintained that such a number of per- 
sons as could be contained in an ordinary place of worship 
ought to be considered as a church, and enjoy all the rights 
and privileges that are competent to an ecclesiastical com- 
munity. These small societies he pronounced independent, 
jure divino, and entirely exempt from the jurisdiction of 
the bishop, in whose hands the court had placed the reins 
of a spiritual government : and also from that of presby- 
teries and synods, which the Puritans regarded as the 
supreme visible sources of ecclesiastical authority. But as 
we have given an account of the general opinions and dis- 
cipline of the Brownists, we need not enumerate them here, 
but must beg the reader to refer to that article. The zeal 
with which Brown and his associates maintained and pro- 
pagated his notions, was, in a high degree, intemperate and 
extravagant. He affirmed that all communion was to be 
broken off with those religious societies that were founded 
upon a different plan from his ; and treated more especially 
the church of England as a spurious church, whose minis- 
ters were unlawfully -ordained ; whose discipline was popish 
and anti-christian ; and whose sacraments and institutions 
were destitute of all efficacy and virtue. His followers not 
being able to endure the severe treatment which they met 
with from an administration that was not distinguished for 



INDEPENDENTS. 



193 



its mildness and indulgence, retired into the Netherlands, 
and founded churches at Middlebourg, Amsterdam, and 
Leyden. Their founder, however, returned into England, 
renounced his principles of separation, and took orders in 
the Established Church. The Puritan exiles, whom he thus 
abandoned, disagreed among themselves, were split into 
parties, and their affairs declined from day to day. This 
engaged the wiser part of them to mitigate the severity 
of their founder's plan, and to soften the rigor of his un- 
charitable decisions. 

The person who had the chief merit of bringing about 
this reformation was one of their pastors, of the name of 
Robinson, a man who had much of the solemn piety of the 
times, and no inconsiderable portion of learning. This 
well meaning reformer, perceiving the defects that reigned 
in the discipline of Brown, and in the spirit and temper 
of his followers, employed his zeal and diligence in correct- 
ing them, and in new-modelling the society in such a man- 
ner, as to render it less odious to his adversaries, and less 
liable to the just censure of those true Christians who look 
upon charity as the end of the commandments, Hitherto 
the sect had been called Brownists ; but Robinson having 
in his apology affirmed that all Christian congregations 
were so many independent religious societies, that had a 
right to be governed by their own laws, independent of any 
further or foreign jurisdiction, the sect was henceforth 
called Independents, of which the apologist was considered 
as the founder. 

The first independent or congregational church in 
England was established by a Mr. Jacob, in the year 1816. 
Mr. Jacob, who had fled from the persecution of Bishop 
Bancroft, going to Holland, and having imparted his 
design of setting up a separate congregation, like those in 
Holland, to the most learned Puritans of those times, it 

17 N 



194 



INDEPENDENTS. 



was not condemned as unlawful, considering there was no 
prospect of a national reformation. Mr. Jacob, therefore, 
having summoned several of his friends together, and 
having obtained their consent to unite in church fellow- 
ship for enjoying the ordinances of Christ in the purest 
manner, they laid the foundation of the first independent 
church in England in the following way : Having observed 
a day of solemn fasting and prayer for a blessing upon 
their undertaking, towards the close of the solemnity, each 
of them made an open confession of their faith in Christ ; 
and then, standing together, they joined hands, and 
solemnly covenanted with each other, in the presence of 
Almighty God, to walk together in all God's way and 
ordinances, according as he had already revealed, or should 
further make known to them. Mr. Jacob was then chosen 
pastor by the suffrage of the brotherhood ; and others were 
appointed to the office of deacons, with fasting and prayer, 
and imposition of hands. 

The Independents were much more commendable than 
the Brownists ; they surpassed them, both in the modera- 
tion of their sentiments, and in the order of their discipline. 
They did not, like Brown, pour forth bitter and unchari- 
table invectives against the churches which were governed 
by rules entirely different from theirs, nor pronounce them, 
on that account, unworthy of the Christian name. On 
the contrary, though they considered their own form of 
ecclesiastical government as of Divine institution, and as 
originally introduced by the authority of the apostles, 
nay, by the apostles themselves, they had yet candor and 
charity enough to acknowledge that true religion and solid 
piety might flourish in those communities which were under 
the jurisdiction of bishops, or the government of synods 
and presbyteries. They were also much more attentive 
than the Brownists in keeping on foot a regular ministry 



INDEPENDENTS. 



195 



in their communities ; for, while the latter allowed promis- 
cuously all ranks and orders of men to teach in public, 
the Independents had, and still have, a certain number of 
ministers, chosen respectively by the congregations where 
they are fixed : nor is it common for any person among 
them to speak in public before he has submitted to a 
proper examination of his capacity and talents, and been 
approved of by the heads of the congregation. 

From 1642, the Independents are very frequently men- 
tioned in the English annals. The charge alleged against 
them by Rapin, (in his History of England, vol. ii. p. 114, 
folio edition,) that they could not so much as endure 
ordinary ministers in the church, &c, is groundless. He 
was led into this mistake by confounding the Independents 
with the Brownists. Other charges, no less unjustifiable, 
have been urged against the Independents by this cele- 
brated historian and others. Rapin says, that they ab- 
horred monarchy and approved of a republican govern- 
ment: this might have been true with regard to many 
persons among them, in common with other sects ; but it 
does not appear, from any of their public writings, that 
republican principles formed their distinguishing charac- 
teristic ; on the contrary, in a public memorial drawn up 
by them in 1647, they declare that they do not disapprove 
of any form of civil government, but do freely acknowledge 
that a kingly government, bounded by just and wholesome 
laws, is allowed by God, and also a good accommodation 
unto men. The Independents, however, have been gene- 
rally ranked among the regicides, and charged with the 
death of Charles I. Whether this fact be admitted or 
denied, no conclusion can be fairly drawn from the greater 
prevalence of republican principles, or from violent pro- 
ceedings at that period, that can affect the distinguishing 
tenets and conduct of the Independents in our times. It 



196 



INDEPENDENTS. 



is certain that the present Independents are steady friends 
to a limited monarchy. Rapin is further mistaken when he 
represents the religious principles of the English Indepen- 
dents as contrary to those of all the rest of the world. It 
appears from two confessions of faith, one composed by 
Robinson, in behalf of the English Independents in Hol- 
land, and published at Leyden, in 1619, entitled, Apologia 
pro Exulibus Anglis, qui Broivnistse vulgo appellantur ; 
and another drawn up in London, in 1658, by the princi- 
pal members of their community in England, entitled, "A 
Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised 
by the Congregational Churches in England, agreed upon 
and consented unto by their Elders and Messengers, in 
their meeting at the Savoy, October 12th, 1658," as well 
as from other writings of the Independents, that they 
differed from the rest of the reformed in no single point 
of any consequence, except that of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment ; and their religious doctrines were almost entirely 
the same with those adopted by the church of Geneva. 
During the administration of Cromwell, the Independents 
acquired very considerable reputation and influence ; and 
he made use of them as a check to the ambition of the 
Presbyterians, who aimed at a very high degree of eccle- 
siastical power, and who had succeeded, soon after the 
elevation of Cromwell, in obtaining a parliamentary estab- 
lishment of their own church government. But after the 
restoration, their cause declined ; and in 1691 they entered 
into an association with the Presbyterians residing in and 
about London, comprised in nine articles, that tended to 
the maintenance of their respective institutions. These 
may be found in the second volume of Whiston's Memoirs, 
and the substance of them in Mosheim. At this time the 
Independents and Presbyterians, called from this associa- 
tion the United Brethren, were agreed with regard to 



INDEPENDENTS. 



197 



doctrines, being generally Calvinists, and differed only 
with respect to ecclesiastical discipline. But at present, 
though the English Independents and Presbyterians form 
two distinct parties of Protestant Dissenters, they are 
distinguished by very trifling differences with regard to 
church government, and the denominations are more arbi- 
trarily used to comprehend those who differ in theological 
opinions. The Independents are generally more attached 
to Calvanism than the Presbyterians. Independentism is 
peculiar to Great Britain, the United States, and the 
Batavian Republic. It was carried first to the American 
colonies in 1620, and by successive Puritan emigrants, in 
1629 and 1633, from England. One Morel, in the six- 
teenth century, endeavored to introduce it into France ; 
but it was condemned at the synod of Bochelle, where 
Beza presided ; and again at the synod of Bochelle, in 1644. 

Many of the Independents reject the use of all creeds 
and confessions drawn up by fallible men, though they 
require of their teachers a declaration of their belief in 
the Gospel and its various doctrines, and their adherence 
to the Scriptures as the sole standard of faith and prac- 
tice. They attribute no virtue whatever to the right of 
ordination, upon which some other churches lay so much 
stress. According to them, the qualifications which con- 
stitute a regular minister of the New Testament, are, a 
firm belief in the Gospel, a principle of sincere and unaf- 
fected piety, a competent stock of knowledge, a capacity 
for leading devotion and communicating instruction, a 
serious inclination to engage in the important employment 
of promoting the everlasting salvation of mankind, and 
ordinarily an invitation to the pastoral office from some 
particular society of Christians. Where these things con- 
cur, they consider a person as fitted and authorized for 
the discharge of every duty which belongs to the minis- 
17* 



198 



INDEPENDENTS. 



terial function ; and they believe that the imposition of 
hands of bishops or presbyters would convey to him no 
powers or prerogatives of which he was not before pos- 
sessed. But though they attribute no virtue to ordination, 
as conveying any new powers, yet they hold with and 
practise it. Many of them, indeed, suppose that the 
essence of ordination does not lie in the act of the minis- 
ters who assist, but in the choice and call of the people, 
and the candidate's acceptance of that call ; so that their 
ordination may be considered only as a public declaration 
of that agreement. They consider it as their right to 
choose their own ministers and deacons. They own no 
man as head of the church. They disallow of parochial 
and provincial subordination ; but though they do not 
think it necessary to assemble synods, yet, if any be held, 
they look upon their resolutions as prudential counsels, 
but not as decisions to which they are obliged to conform. 
They consider the Scriptures as the only criterion of 
truth. Their worship is conducted in a decent, plain, and 
simple manner, without the ostentation of form, and the 
vain pomp of ceremony. 

The congregations of the Independents are very nume- 
rous, both in England and America, and some of them 
very respectable. This denomination has produced many 
characters as eminent for learning and piety as any church 
in Christendom ; whose works, no doubt, will reflect lasting 
honor on their characters and abilities. 



NEONOMIANS. 



199 



NEONOMIANS. 

Neonomians, so called from the Greek vsog, new, and 
vofxos, law, signifying new law, the condition whereof is im- 
perfect, though sincere and persevering obedience. 

Neonomianism seems to be an essential part of the Armi- 
nian system. " The new covenant of grace which, through 
the medium of Christ's death, the Father made with men, 
consists, according to this system, not in our being justi- 
fied by faith, as it apprehends the righteousness of Christ; 
but in this, that God, abrogating the exaction of perfect 
legal obedience, reputes or accepts of faith itself, and the 
imperfect obedience of faith, instead of the perfect obe- 
dience of the law, and graciously accounts them worthy of 
the reward of eternal life." This opinion was examined at 
the synod of Dort, and has been canvassed between the 
Calvinists and Arminians on various occasions. 

Towards the close of the seventeenth century, a contro- 
versy was agitated amongst the English Dissenters, in 
which the one side, who were partial to the writings of Dr. 
Crisp, "were charged with Antinomianism, and the other, 
who favored Mr. Baxter, were accused of Neonomianism. 
Mr. Daniel Williams, who was a principal writer on what 
was called the Neonomian side, after many things had been 
said, gives the following as a summary of his faith in refe- 
rence to those subjects. — 1. God has eternally elected a 
certain definite number of men whom he will infallibly save 
by Christ in that way prescribed by the Gospel. 2. These 
very elect are not personally justified until they receive 
Christ, and yield up themselves to him, but they remain 
condemned whilst unconverted to Christ. 3. By the min- 
istry of the Gospel there is a serious offer of pardon and 



200 



NEONOMIANS. 



glory, upon the terms of the Gospel, to all that hear it ; 
and God thereby requires them to comply with the said 
terms. 4. Ministers ought to use these and other Gospel 
benefits as motives, assuring men that if they believe they 
shall be justified ; if they turn to God, they shall live ; if 
they repent, their sins shall be blotted out ; and whilst they 
neglect these duties, they cannot have a personal interest 
in these respective benefits. 5. It is by the power of the 
Spirit of Christ freely exerted, and not by the power of 
free-will, that the Gospel becomes effectual for the conver- 
sion of any soul to the obedience of faith. 6. When a man 
believes, yet it is not that very faith, and much less any 
other work, the matter of that righteousness for which a 
sinner is justified, i. e., entitled to pardon, acceptance, and 
eternal glory, as righteous before God ; and it is the im- 
puted righteousness of Christ alone, for which the Gospel 
gives the believer a right to these and all saving blessings, 
who in this respect is justified by Christ's righteousness 
alone. By both this and the fifth head it appears that all 
boasting is excluded, and we are saved by free grace. 7. 
Faith alone receives the Lord Jesus and his righteousness, 
and the subject of this faith is a convinced, penitent soul ; 
hence we are justified by faith alone, and yet the impeni- 
tent are not forgiven. 8. God has freely promised that all 
whom he predestinated to salvation shall not only savingly 
believe, but that he by his power shall preserve them from 
a total or a final apostasy. 9. Yet the believer, whilst he 
lives in this world, is to pass the time of his sojourning 
here with fear, because his warfare is not accomplished, 
and that it is true that, if he draw back, God will have no 
pleasure in him. Which with the like cautions God blesseth 
as means to the saints' perseverance, and these by minis- 
ters should be so urged. 10. The law of innocence, or 
moral law, is so in force still, as that every precept there- 



NEONOMIANS. 



201 



of constitutes duty, even 10 the believer : every breach 
thereof is a sin deserving of death : this law binds death 
by its curse on every unbeliever, and the righteousness for 
or by which we are justified before God, is a righteousness 
(at least) adequate to that law which is Christ's alone right- 
eousness ; and this so imputed to the believer as that God 
deals judicially with him according thereto. 11. Yet such 
is the grace of the Gospel, that it promiseth in and by 
Christ a freedom from the curse, forgiveness of sin, and 
eternal life, to every sincere believer ; which promise God 
will certainly perform, notwithstanding the threatening of 
the law." 

Dr. Williams maintains the conditionality of the cove- 
nant of grace ; but admits with Dr. Owen, who also uses the 
term condition, that " Christ undertook that those who were 
to be taken into this covenant should receive grace enabling 
them to comply with the terms of it, fulfil its conditions, 
and yield the obedience which God required therein." 

On this subject Dr. Williams further says, " The ques- 
tion is not whether the first (viz., regenerating) grace, by 
which we are enabled to perform the condition, be abso- 
lutely given. This I affirm, though that be dispensed ordi- 
narily in a due use of means, and in a way discountenancing 
idleness, and fit encouragement given to the use of means." 

The following objection, among others, was made by 
several ministers in 1692, against Dr. William's Gospel 
Truth Stated, &c. " To supply the room of the moral law, 
vacated by him, he turns the Gospel into a new law, in 
keeping of which we shall be justified for the sake of Christ's 
righteousness, making qualifications and acts of ours a dis- 
posing subordinate righteousness, whereby we become 
capable of being justified by Christ's righteousness." 

To this, among other things, he answers, " The differ- 
ence is not, 1. Whether the Gospel be a new law in the 



202 



NONCONFORMISTS. 



Socinian, Popish, or Arminian sense. This I deny. Nor, 
2. Is faith, or any other grace or act of ours, any atone- 
ment for sin, satisfaction to justice, meriting qualification, 
or any part of that righteousness for which we are justified 
at God our Creator's bar. This I deny in places innume- 
rable. Nor, 3. Whether the Gospel be a law more new 
than is implied in the first promise to fallen Adam, pro- 
posed to Cain, and obeyed by Abel, to the differencing him 
from his unbelieving brother. This I deny. 4. Nor whether 
the Gospel be a law that allows sin, when it accepts such 
graces as true, though short of perfection, to be the condi- 
tions of our personal interest in the benefits purchased by 
Christ. This I deny. 5. Nor whether the Gospel be a 
law, the promises whereof entitle the performers of its 
conditions to the benefits as of debt. This I deny. 

He goes on to say that the real difference is, that the 
Gospel is a law, as commanding repentance, and promising 
pardon to obedience, and threatening punishment to dis- 
obedience. 



NONCONFORMISTS. 

This sect is remarkable as having once included some 
of the ablest, most eloquent and pious clergymen in England. 
The Nonconformists were those who at certain periods re- 
fused to join the established church of England. Those in 
England may be considered of three parts: 1. Such as absent 
themselves from Divine worship in the established church 
through total irreligion, and attend the service of no other 
persuasion. 2. Such as absent themselves on the plea of 
conscience ; as Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, etc. 
3. Internal Nonconformists, or unprincipled clergymen, 



NONCONFORMISTS. 



203 



who applaud and propagate doctrines quite inconsistent 
with several of those articles they promised on oath to 
defend. The word is generally used in reference to those 
ministers who were ejected from their livings by the Act 
of Uniformity, in 1662. The number of these was about 
two thousand. However some affect to treat these men 
with indifference, and suppose that their consciences were 
more tender than they need be, it must be remembered 
that they were men of as extensive learning, great abili- 
ties, and pious conduct, as ever appeared. Mr. Locke, if 
his opinion have any weight, calls them "worthy, learned, 
pious, orthodox divines, who did not throw themselves out 
of service, but were forcibly ejected." Mr. Bogue thus 
draws their character: "As to their public ministration 
he says, "they were orthodox, experimental, serious, affec- 
tionate, regular, faithful, able, and popular preachers. As 
to their moral qualities, they were devout and holy ; faith- 
ful to Christ and the souls of men ; wise and prudent ; of 
great liberality and kindness ; and strenuous advocates for 
liberty, civil and religious. As to their intellectual quali- 
ties, they were learned, eminent, and laborious." These 
men were driven from their houses, from the society of 
their friends, and exposed to the greatest difficulties. 
Their burdens were greatly increased by the Conventicle 
Act, whereby they were prohibited from meeting for any 
exercise of religion (above five in number) in any other 
manner than allowed by the liturgy or practice of the 
Church of England. For the first offence the penalty was 
three months' imprisonment, or pay five pounds ; for the 
second offence, six months' imprisonment, or ten pounds ; 
and for the third offence, to be banished to some of the 
American plantations for seven years, or pay one hundred 
pounds ; and in case they returned, to suffer death without 
benefit of clergy. By virtue of this act, the jails were 



204 



NONCONFORMISTS. 



quickly filled with dissenting Protestants, and the trade 
of an informer was very gainful. So great was the seve- 
rity of these times, says Neale, that they were afraid to 
pray in their families, if above four of their acquaintance, 
who came only to visit them, were present. Some families 
scrupled asking a blessing on their meat, if five strangers 
were at table. 

But this was not all (to say nothing of the Test Act). 
In 1665, an act was brought into the House to banish 
them from their friends, commonly called the Oxford Five 
Mile Act, by which all dissenting ministers, on the penalty 
of forty pounds, who would not take an oath (that it was 
not lawful, upon any pretence whatever, to take arms 
against the king, etc.), were prohibited from coming within 
five miles of any city, town corporate, or borough, or any 
place where they had exercised their ministry, and from 
teaching any school. Some few took the oath ; others 
could not, and consequently suffered the penalty. 

In 1673, "the mouths of the high church pulpiteers 
were encouraged to open as loud as possible. One, in his 
sermon before the House of Commons, told them that the 
Nonconformists ought not to be tolerated, but to be cured 
by vengeance. He urged them to set fire to the faggot, 
and to teach them by scourges or scorpions, and open their 
eyes with gall." 

Such were the dreadful consequences of this intolerant 
spirit, that it is supposed near eight thousand died in pri- 
son in the reign of Charles II. It is said that Mr. Jere- 
miah White had carefully collected a list of those who had 
suffered between Charles II. and the revolution, which 
amounted to sixty thousand. The same persecutions were 
carried on in Scotland ; and there, as well as in England, 
many, to avoid persecution, fled from their country. 

But, notwithstanding all these dreadful and furious at- 
tacks upon the Dissenters, they were not extirpated. Their 



NONCONFORMISTS. 



205 



very persecution was in their favor. The infamous char- 
acters of their informers and persecutors ; their piety, 
zeal, and fortitude, no doubt, had influence on considerate 
minds ; and, indeed, they had additions from the esta- 
blished church, which " several clergymen in this reign 
deserted as a persecuting church, and took their lot among 
them." In addition to this, King James suddenly altered 
his measures, granted a universal toleration, and preferred 
Dissenters to places of trust and profit, though it was evi- 
dently with a view to restore Popery. 

King William coming to the throne, the famous Tolera- 
tion Act passed, by which they were exempted from suffer- 
ing the penalties before mentioned, and permission given 
them to worship God according to the dictates of their 
own consciences. In the latter end of Queen Anne's 
reign, they began to be a little alarmed. An act of Par- 
liament passed, called the Occasional Conformity Bill, 
which prevented any person in office under the government 
entering into a meeting-house. Another, called the Schism 
Bill, had actually obtained the royal assent, which suffered 
no Dissenters to educate their own children, but required 
them to be put into the hands of Conformists ; and which 
forbade all tutors and schoolmasters being present at any 
conventicle, or dissenting place of worship ; but the very 
day this iniquitous act was to have taken effect, the Queen 
died (August 1, 1714). 

But George I., being fully satisfied that these hardships 
were brought upon the Dissenters for their steady adhe- 
rence to the Protestant succession in his illustrious house, 
against a Tory and Jacobite ministry who were paving the 
way for a Popish pretender, procured the repeal of them 
in the fifth year of his reign ; though a clause was left 
that forbade the mayor or other magistrate to go into any 
meeting for religious worship with the ensigns of his office. 
18 



206 



HUGUENOTS. 



HUGUENOTS. 

This term, which was applied to the Protestants in 
France in contempt, is of uncertain origin. In public 
documents, they were styled Ceux de la religion pretendue 
reformee, or Religionnaires. 

The principles of Luther and Zwinglius had gained an 
entrance into France, during the reign of Francis L 
(1515-47). The doctrines of Calvin spread still more 
widely, although Francis endeavored to suppress them by 
prohibiting Calvinistic books, and by penal laws, and, in 
some instances, by capital punishments. 

Under Henry II., the successor of Francis, these doc- 
trines made greater progress, in proportion as they were 
more violently persecuted. The opinions and influence of 
Queen Margaret of Navarre had no small share in this 
extension, and the parties at court contributed much to 
the bloody -persecution of the Protestants. One party 
wished to enrich themselves by the estates of the heretics, 
who were executed or banished, and the other to gain the 
favor of the people by their punishment. The parties of 
the Bourbons and of the five princes of Guise, under the 
government of the weak Francis II. , made use of this re- 
ligious dispute, in order to advance their own political 
ends. 

The Bourbons belonged to the Protestant party; and 
the Guises, in order to weaken, and, if possible, to destroy 
their rivals, continued the persecution of the heretics with 
fanatical fury. In every parliament there was a chamber 
established to examine and punish the Protestants, called 
by the people the burning chamber (chambre ardente), 



HUGUENOTS. 



207 



because all convicted of heresy were burnt. The estates 
of those who fled were sold, and their children who re- 
mained behind were exposed to the greatest sufferings. 
But notwithstanding this persecution, the Protestants 
would not have thought of a rebellion, had not a prince of 
the blood encouraged them to it by the promise of his 
assistance. 

In 1560 the conspiracy began. The discontented in- 
quired of lawyers and theologians whether they could with 
a good conscience take arms against the Guises. The 
Protestant divines in Germany declared it proper to resist 
the tyranny of the Guises, if it were under the guidance 
and direction of a prince of the blood, and with the appro- 
bation of the majority in the States. 

The malcontents having consulted upon the choice of a . 
leader, all voices decided in favor of the brave prince 
Louis of Conde, who had conducted the whole affair, and 
gladly seized the opportunity to make himself formidable 
by the support of the Huguenots. The name of the leader 
was, however kept secret, and a Protestant gentleman of 
Perigord, John du Barry, seigneur of Benaudie, was ap- 
pointed his deputy. 

It was determined that a number of the Calvinists 
should appear on an appointed day before the king at 
Blois, to present a petition for the free exercise of their 
religion ; and, in case this request was denied, as it was 
foreseen it would be, a chosen band of armed Protestants 
were to make themselves masters of the city of Blois, 
seize the Guises, and compel the king to name the Prince 
of Conde regent of the realm. 

This plot was betrayed. The court left Blois, the mili- 
tary were summoned, and the greatest part of the Protest- 
ants who had armed themselves to carry the conspiracy 
into effect, were executed or imprisoned. Few of those 



208 



HUGUENOTS. 



who fell into the power of the court found mercy ; and 
about 1200 expiated their offence with their lives. 

The Guises now desired to establish the inquisition, but 
the wise chancellor, Michael de l'Hopital, in order to avoid 
the greater evil, advised that all inquiries into the crime 
of heresy should be committed to the bishops, and that 
parliament should be prohibited from exercising any juris- 
dictian in matters of faith ; and it was so ordered by the 
edict of Romorantin (1560). 

In the reign of the next king, Charles IX., during whose 
minority the Queen mother, Catharine de Medici, was at 
the head of the government, the contest between the par- 
ties became yet more violent, and their contending interests 
were more and more used for a pretence to accomplish 
unholy designs, and it was only from motives of policy 
that the free exercise of their religion was secured to the 
Protestants by the Queen, in order to preserve the balance 
between the parties, by the edict of January (1562), so 
called. The Protestants thereby gained new courage ; but 
their adversaries, dissatisfied with this ordinance, and re- 
gardless of decency, disturbed the Huguenots in their 
religious services. Bloody scenes were the result, and the 
massacre of Vassy (1562) was the immediate cause of the 
first civil war. 

These religious wars desolated France almost to the 
end of the sixteenth century, and were only interrupted 
by occasional truces. The suffering which these wars 
brought upon the people is to be ascribed to the instability 
and bad policy of Queen Catharine de Medici, who exerted 
the most decided influence, not only over the feeble 
Charles IX., but likewise over the contemptible Henry III. 
She wished, in fact, for the extirpation of the Huguenots, 
and it was merely her intriguing policy which induced her, 
much to the vexation of the opposite party, to favor the 



HUGUENOTS. 



209 



Protestants from time to time, and to grant them freedom 
of conscience. Always wavering between the two parties, 
she flattered herself with the expectation of holding them 
in check during peace, or of destroying the one by the 
other in war. Both parties were, therefore, generally dis- 
satisfied with the court, and followed their own leaders. 

A wild fanaticism seized the people. Heated with pas- 
sion and religious hatred, they endeavored only to injure 
each other ; and, with the exception of some party leaders, 
who made use of this excitement for the accomplishment 
of their own ambitious schemes, their only object was to 
acquire the superiority for their own creed by fire and 
sword. 

The horrible effect of Catharine's policy was the massa- 
cre of St. Bartholomew's (1572), of which she and her 
son, her pupil in dissimulation, had laid the plan with their 
confidants. Shortly before the line of kings of the house 
of Valois had become extinct with Henry III., and the 
way was opened for the house of Bourbon, the head of 
which was the Protestant Henry, king of Navarre, the re- 
lations of the two parties became still more involved. 

The feeble king found himself compelled to unite with 
the king of Navarre against the common enemy, as the 
intrigues of the ambitious Guises, who openly aimed at the 
throne, had excited the people against him to such a de- 
gree, that he was on the point of losing the crown. 

After the assassination of Henry III., the king of Na- 
varre was obliged to maintain a severe struggle for the 
vacant throne ; and not until he had, by the advice of 
Sully, embraced the Catholic religion (1593), did he enjoy 
quiet possession of the kingdom. 

Five years afterwards he secured to the Huguenots their 
civil rights by the edict of Nantes, which confirmed to 
them the free exercise of their religion, and gave them 
18* 



210 HUGUENOTS. 

equal claims with the Catholics to all offices and dignities. 

They were also left in possession of the fortresses which 

had been ceded to them for their security. 

This edict afforded them a means of forming a kind of 

republic within the kingdom, and such a powerful party, 

which had for a long time been obliged to be distrustful 

of the government, would always offer to the restless no- 
bility a rallying point and a prospect of assistance. 
Louis XIII., the weak and bigoted son of the liberal 

and magnanimous Henry IV., allowed himself to be influ- 
enced by his ambitious favorite, De Luines, and his con- 
fessor, against the Huguenots, who were able to offer a 
powerful resistance, as they had become very numerous in 
many provinces. But in the first religious war, which 
broke out in 1621, the Protestants lost the greatest part 
of their strong places, through the faithlessness or coward- 
ice of the governors. Some of these, however, and among 
the rest Rochelle, remained to them, when, disunited among 
themselves and weary of war, they concluded a peace. 

Rochelle enabled them to keep up a connection with 
England ; and Richelieu, who aimed to make the royal 
power, which he exercised under the name of Louis, abso- 
lute, used every means to deprive the Protestants of this 
bulwark of their liberty, and thus destroy every remnant 
of a league which recalled the times when civil factions 
had so often weakened the royal power. 

Rochelle fell into the hands of Louis, after an obstinate 
defence, in 1629 ; the Huguenots were obliged to surrender 
all their strong holds, and were thus left entirely at the 
mercy of the king. Freedom of conscience was indeed 
promised them, and Richelieu and his successor Mazarin 
did not disturb them in the enjoyment of it ; but when 
Louis XIY. abandoned his voluptuous life for an affected 
devotion, he was led by his confessors and Madame de 



HUGUENOTS. 



211 



Maintenon, to persecute the Protestants, for the purpose 
of bringing them back to the bosom of the true church. 

In 1681, he deprived them of most of their civil rights, 
and, on the death of Colbert, who had generally opposed 
violent measures, he followed altogether the advice of his 
counsellors, who were in favor of persecution — his minister 
of war, Louvois, the chancellor Le Tellier, and the Jesuit 
La Chaise, his father confessor. Bodies of dragoons were 
sent into the southern provinces, where the Protestants 
were most numerous, to compel the unhappy inhabitants 
to abjure their faith. 

To prevent the emigration of the Protestants, the fron- 
tiers were guarded with the utmost vigilance ; yet more 
than 500,000 Huguenots fled to Switzerland, Germany, 
Holland, and England. Many, who could not escape, 
were obliged to renounce their faith. 

Lists of Protestants who, it was pretended, had been 
converted, were sent to the king, and it was very easy for 
his flattering counsellors to persuade him that he had 
gained honor by having almost extirpated the Protestants 
in France. Under this erroneous supposition, he revoked 
the edict of Nantes, October 22, 1685. But he had still 
more than half a million of Protestant subjects, and this 
unjust and unwise revocation robbed Prance of a great 
number of useful and rich inhabitants, whose industry, 
wealth, and skill found a welcome reception in foreign 
countries. 

But quiet was by no means restored in France. In the 
provinces between the Rhone and Garonne, the Protestants 
were yet very numerous, and the neighboring mountains 
of Cevennes afforded them shelter. There the Camisards 
maintained war for a long time, armed for the most part 
with clubs alone. The contest was not altogether unlike 
the war of La Vendee in later times. 



212 



HUGUENOTS. 



After twenty years (1706), the government was finally 
obliged to come to terms with them ; yet quiet was not 
perfectly restored. In the level country, especially at 
Nismes, a Protestant spirit still survived in secret ; even 
the compassion of the Catholics was excited, and many 
persecutors of the Protestants became their defenders ; 
and there were not wanting clergymen among the Hugue- 
nots, who were kept concealed. 

In the reign of Louis XV., new but less severe measures 
were adopted against the Protestants, and, in 1746, they 
ventured to appear publicly in Languedoc and Dauphiny. 
By degrees, many voices were raised in favor of religious 
toleration. Montesquieu led the way ; but Voltaire, 
shocked by the unhappy fate of John Calas, effected still 
more by his Essay on Toleration, in 1762. 

From this time Protestants were no longer disturbed ; 
yet they did not dare to make pretensions to public offices. 
The Revolution restored them all their civil rights, and 
they frequently laid out their hitherto secreted treasures 
in the purchase of the national domains. It was not 
therefore strange that, at the Rostoration, they appeared 
attached to the former government, which had granted 
them privileges that they were fearful of losing under the 
new. Although they did not offer any opposition to the 
new order of things, yet troubles took place, which were 
attended with bloodshed, at Nismes and the vicinity ; but 
these were suppressed by the judicious measures of the 
government. 

On the revocation of the edict of Nantes, a considerable 
number of Protestants fled for refuge to America, most 
of whom settled in South Carolina. Dr. Ramsey, in his 
History of South Carolina, thus notices this little colony 
of Huguenots : 

" The revocation of the edict of Nantes, fifteen years 



QUAKERS. 



213 



subsequent to the settlement of Carolina, contributed much 
to its population. In it, soon after that event, were trans- 
planted from France the stocks from which have sprung 
the respectable families of Bonneau, Bounetheau, Bor- 
deaux, Benoist, Boiseau, Bocquet, Bacot, Chevalier, Cordes, 
Couterier, Chastaignier, Dupre, Delysle, Dubose, Dubois, 
Deveaux, Dutarque, De la Consiliere, De Leiseline, Doux- 
saint, Du Pont, Du Bourdieu, D'Harriette, Faucheraud, 
Foissin, Faysoux, Gaillard, Gendron, Gignilliat, Guerard, 
Godin, Girardeau, Guerin, Gourdine, Horry, Huger, Jean- 
nerette, Legare, Laurens, La Roche, Lenud, Lansac, Ma- 
rion, Mazyck, Manigault, Mellichamp, Mouzon, Michau, 
Neufville, Prioleau,* Peronneau, Perdriau, Porcher, Pos- 
tell, Peyre, Poyas, Ravenel, Royer, Simons, Sarazin, St. 
Julien, Serre, Trezevant. 



QUAKERS, 

A sect which took its rise in England about the middle 
of the seventeenth century, and rapidly found its way into 
other countries in Europe, and into the English settlements 
in North America. The members of this society, we believe, 
called themselves at first Seekers, from their seeking the 

* The Rev. Elias Prioleau, the founder of the eminently respect- 
able family of that name in Carolina, migrated thither soon after 
the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and brought with him from 
France a considerable part of his Protestant congregation. He was 
the grandson of Anthoine Prioli, who was elected Doge of Venice 
in the year 1618. Many of his numerous descendants, who were 
born and constantly resided in or near Charleston, have approached 
or exceeded their seventieth year; and several have survived, or 
now survive, their eightieth. 



214 



QUAKERS. 



truth ; but after the society was formed, they assumed the 
appellation of Friends. The name of Quakers was given 
to them by their enemies, and though an epithet of reproach, 
seems to be stamped upon them indelibly. George Fox is 
supposed to be their first founder ; but after the restoration, 
Penn and Barclay gave to their principles a more regular 
form. 

The doctrines of their society have been variously repre- 
sented ; and some have thought and taken pains to prove 
them favorable to Socinianism. But, according to Penn, 
they believe in the Holy Three, or the trinity of the Father, 
Word, and Spirit, agreeably to the Scripture. In reply to 
the charge that they deny Christ to be God, Penn says 
"that it is a most untrue and uncharitable censure — that 
they truly and expressly own him to be so according to the 
Scripture." To the objection that they deny the human 
nature of Christ, he answers, " We never taught, said, or 
held so gross a thing, but believe him to be truly and pro- 
perly man like us, sin only excepted." The doctrines of 
the fall, and the redemption by Christ, are, according to 
him, believed firmly by them ; and he declares " that they 
own Jesus Christ as their sacrifice, atonement, and pro- 
pitiation." 

But we shall here state a further account of their prin- 
ciples and discipline, as extracted from a summary trans- 
mitted from one of their most respectable members. 

They tell us that about the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, a number of men, dissatisfied with all the modes 
of religious worship then known in the world, withdrew 
from the communion of every visible church to seek the 
Lord in retirement. Among these was their honorable elder, 
Greorge Fox, who, being quickened by the immediate touches 
of divine love, could not satisfy his apprehensions of duty 
to God without directing the people where to find the like 



QUAKERS. 



215 



consolation and instruction. In the course of his travels, 
he met with many seeking persons in circumstances similar 
to his own, and these readily received his testimony. They 
then give us a short account of their sufferings and differ- 
ent settlements ; they also vindicate Charles II. from the 
character of a persecutor ; acknowledging that, though they 
suffered much during his reign, he gave as little counte- 
nance as he could to the severities of the legislature. They 
even tell us that he exerted his influence to rescue their 
friends from the unprovoked and cruel persecutions they 
met with in New England ; and they speak with becoming 
gratitute of the different acts passed in their favor during 
the reigns of William and Mary, .and George I. They 
then proceed to give us the following account of their 
doctrine : — 

" We agree with other professors of the Christian name, 
in the belief of one eternal God, the Creator and Preserver 
of the universe : and in Jesus Christ his Son, the Messiah 
and mediator of the new covenant (Heb. xii. 24). 

"When we speak of the gracious display of the love 
of God to mankind, in the miraculous conception, birth, 
life, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of our 
Saviour, we prefer the use of such terms as we find in Scrip- 
ture ; and, contented with that knowledge which divine 
wisdom hath seen meet to reveal, we attempt not to explain 
those mysteries which remain under the veil ; nevertheless 
we acknowledge and assert the divinity of Christ, who is 
the wisdom and power of God unto salvation (1 Cor. i. 24). 

" To Christ alone we give the title of the Word of God, 
(John i. 1), and not to the Scriptures, although we highly 
esteem these sacred writings, in subordination to the Spirit 
(2 Pet. i. 21) from which they were given forth ; and we 
hold, with the apostle Paul, that they are able to make wise 



216 



QUAKERS. 



unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus (2 
Tim. iii. 15). 

" We reverence those most excellent precepts which are 
recorded in Scripture to have been delivered by our great 
Lord ; and we firmly believe that they are practicable, and 
binding on every Christian ; and that in the life to come 
every man will be rewarded according to his works (Matt, 
xvi. 27). And, further, it is our belief that, in order to 
enable mankind to put in practice these sacred precepts, 
many of which are contradictory to the unregenerate will 
of man (John i. 9), every man coming into the world is 
endued with a measure of the light, grace, or good Spirit 
of Christ ; by which, as it is attended to, he is enabled to 
distinguish good from evil, and to correct the disorderly 
passions and corrupt propensities of his nature, which mere 
reason is altogether insufficient to overcome. For all that 
belongs to man is fallible, and within the reach of tempta- 
tion ; but this divine grace, which comes by him who hath 
overcome the world (John xvi. 33), is, to those who humbly 
and sincerely seek it, an all-sufficient and present help in 
time of need. By this the snares of the enemy are detected, 
his allurements avoided, and deliverance is experienced 
through faith in its effectual operation ; whereby the soul 
is translated out of the kingdom of darkness, and from 
under the power of Satan, unto the marvellous light and 
kingdom of the Son of God. 

"Being thus persuaded that man, without the Spirit 
of Christ inwardly revealed, can do nothing to the glory 
of God, or to effect his own salvation, we think this influ- 
ence especially necessary to the performance of the highest 
act of which the human mind is capable ; even the worship 
of the Father of light and of spirits, in spirit and in truth : 
therefore we consider, as obstructions to pure worship, all 
forms which divert the attention of the mind from the 



QUAKERS. 



217 



secret influence of this unction from the Holy One (1 John 
ii. 20, 27). Yet, although true worship is not confined to 
time and place, we think it incumbent on Christians to meet 
often together (Heb. x. 25), in testimony of their depend- 
ence on the heavenly Father, and for a renewal of their 
spiritual strength : nevertheless, in the performance of wor- 
ship, we dare not depend for our acceptance with him on 
a formal repetition of the words and experiences of others ; 
but we believe it to be our duty to lay aside the activity 
of the imagination, and to wait in silence to have a true 
sight of our condition bestowed upon us ; believing even a 
single sigh (Rom. vii. 24) arising from such a sense of our 
infirmities, and of the need we have of divine help, to be 
more acceptable to God than any performances, however 
specious, which originate in the will of man. 

" From what has been said respecting worship, it follows 
that the ministry we approve must have its origin from the 
same source ; for that which is needful for man's own direc- 
tion, and for his acceptance with God (Jer. xxiii. 30 to 32), 
must be eminently so to enable him to be helpful to others. 
Accordingly, we believe that the renewed assistance of the 
light and power of Christ is indispensably necessary for 
all true ministry, and that this holy influence is not at our 
command, or to be procured by study, but in the free gift 
of God to chosen and devoted servants. Hence arises our 
testimony against preaching for hire, in contradiction to 
Christ's positive command, 4 Freely ye have received, freely 
give' (Matt. x. 8) ; and hence our conscientious refusal to 
support such ministry by tithes, or other means. 

"As we dare not encourage any ministry but that which 
we believe to spring from the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
so neither dare we attempt to restrain this influence to 
persons of any condition in life, or to the male sex alone ; 
but, as male and female are one in Christ, we allow such 
.19 



218 



QUAKERS. 



of the female sex as we believe to be endued with a right 
qualification for the ministry, to exercise their gifts for the 
general edification of the church ; and this liberty we esteem 
a peculiar mark of the Gospel dispensation, as foretold by 
the prophet Joel (Joel ii. 28, 29) ; and noticed by the apostle 
Peter (Acts ii. 16, 17). 

" There are two ceremonies in use among most professors 
of the Christian name, — water baptism, and what is termed 
the Lord's Supper. The first of these is generally esteemed 
the essential means of initiation into the church of Christ; 
and the latter of maintaining communion with him. But 
as we have been convinced that nothing short of his re- 
deeming power, invariably revealed, can set the soul free 
from the thraldom of sin, by this power alone we believe 
salvation to be effected. We hold that, as there is one 
Lord and one faith (Eph. iv. 5), so his baptism is one in 
nature and operation ; that nothing short of it can make 
us living members of his mystical body ; and that the 
baptism with water, administered by his forerunner John, 
belonged, as the latter confessed, to an inferior dispensa- 
tion (John iii. 30). 

" With respect to the other rite, we believe that commu- 
nion between Christ and his church is not maintained by 
that nor any other external performance, but only by a 
real participation of his divine nature (1 Pet. ii. 4) through 
faith ; that this is the supper alluded to in the Revelation 
(Rev. vii. 20) : t Behold I stand at the door and knock : 
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come 
in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me;' and 
that where the substance is attained, it is unnecessary to 
attend to the shadow, which doth not confer grace, and 
concerning which opinions so different and animosities so 
violent have arisen. 

"Now, as we thus believe that the grace of God, which 



QUAKERS. 



219 



comes by Jesus Christ, is alone sufficient for salvation, we 
can neither admit that it is conferred on a few only, whilst 
others are left without it, nor, thus asserting its univer- 
sality, can we limit its operation to a partial cleansing 
of the soul from sin, even in this life. We entertain wor- 
thier notions both of the power and goodness of our hea- 
venly Father, and believe that he doth vouchsafe to assist 
the obedient to experience a total surrender of the natural 
will to the guidance of his pure, unerring Spirit, through 
whose renewed assistance they are enabled to bring forth 
fruits unto holiness, and to stand perfect in their present 
rank (Matt. v. 48 ; Eph. iv. 13 ; Col. iv. 12). 

" There are not many of our tenets more generally 
known than our testimony against oaths, and against war. 
With respect to the former of these, we abide literally by 
Christ's positive injunction, delivered in his sermon on the 
mount, ' Swear not at all' (Matt. v. 34). From the same sa- 
cred collection of the most excellent precepts of moral and 
religious duty, from the example of our Lord himself (Matt, 
v. 39, 44, &c; xxvi. 52, 53 ; Luke xxii. 51 ; John xviii. 
11), and from the correspondent convictions of his Spirit 
in our hearts, we are confirmed in the belief that wars and 
fightings are in their origin and effects utterly repugnant 
to the Gospel, which still breathes peace and good-will to 
men. We also are clearly of the judgment that if the be- 
nevolence of the Gospel were generally prevalent in the 
minds of men, it would effectually prevent them from op- 
pressing, much more from enslaving, their brethren (of what- 
ever color or complexion), for whom, as for themselves, 
Christ died; and would even influence their conduct in 
their treatment of the brute creation, which would no longer 
groan, the victims of their avarice, or of their false ideas 
of pleasure. 

" Some of our ideas have, in former times, as hath been 



220 



QUAKERS. 



shown, subjected our friends to much suffering from govern- 
ment, though to the salutary purposes of government our 
principles are a security. They inculcate submission to 
the laws in all cases wherein conscience is not violated. 
But we hold that as Christ's kingdom is not of this world, 
it is not the business of the civil magistrate to interfere in 
matters of religion, but to maintain the external peace and 
good order of the community. We therefore think perse- 
cution, even in the smallest degree, unwarrantable. We 
are careful in requiring our members not to be concerned 
in illicit trade, nor in any manner to defraud the revenue. 

" It is well known that the society, from its first appear- 
ance, has disused those names of the months and days, 
which, having been given in honor of the heroes or false 
gods of the heathen, originated in their flattery or super- 
stition ; and the custom of speaking to a single person in 
the plural number, as having arisen also from motives 
of adulation. Compliments, superfluity of apparel and 
furniture, outward shows of rejoicing and mourning, and 
the observation of days and times, we esteem to be in- 
compatible with the simplicity and sincerity of a Christian 
life ; and public diversions, gaming, and other vain amuse- 
ments of the world, we cannot but condemn. They are a 
waste of that time which is given us for nobler purposes ; 
and divert the attention of the mind from the sober duties 
of life, and from the reproofs of instruction by which we 
are guided to an everlasting inheritance. 

" To conclude : although we have exhibited the several 
tenets which distinguish our religious society as objects 
of our belief, yet we are sensible that a true and living 
faith is not produced in the mind of man by his own effort, 
but is the free gift of God in Christ Jesus (Eph. ii. 8), nou- 
rished and increased by the progressive operation of his 
Spirit in our hearts, and our proportionate obedience (John 



QUAKERS. 



221 



vii. 17). Therefore, although for the preservation of the 
testimonies given us to bear, and for the peace and good 
order of the society, we deem it necessary that those who 
are admitted into membership with us should be previously 
convinced of those doctrines which we esteem essential, yet 
we require no formal subscription to any articles, either as 
a condition of membership, or a qualification for the service 
of the church. We prefer the judging of men by their 
fruits, and depending on the aid of Him who, by his pro- 
phet, hath promised to be ' a spirit of judgment to him that 
sitteth in judgment.' (Is. xxviii. 6.) Without this, there is 
a danger of receiving numbers into outward communion, 
without any addition to that spiritual sheep-fold, whereof 
our blessed Lord declared himself to be both the door and 
the shepherd (John x. 7, 11); that is, such as know his 
voice and follow him in the paths of obedience. 

"In the practice of discipline, we think it indispensable 
that the order recommended by Christ himself be invaria- 
bly observed (Matt, xviii. 15, 17). 

"To effect the salutary purposes of discipline, meetings 
were appointed at an early period of the society, which, 
from the times of their being held, were called quarterly 
meetings. It was afterwards found expedient to divide the 
districts of those meetings, and to meet more frequently, 
from whence arose monthly meetings, subordinate to those 
held quarterly. At length, in 1669, a yearly meeting was 
established, to superintend, assist, and provide rules for the 
whole, previously to which general meetings had been oc- 
casionally held. 

"A monthly meeting is usually composed of several 
particular congregations, situated within a convenient dis- 
tance from each other. Its business is to provide for the 
subsistence of the poor, and for the education of their off- 
spring ; to judge of the sincerity and fitness of persons 
19* 



222 



QUAKERS. 



appearing to be convinced of the religious principles of 
the society, and desiring to be admitted into membership ; 
to excite due attention to the discharge of religious and 
moral duty; and to deal with disorderly members. Monthly 
meetings also grant to such of their members as remove 
into other monthly meetings certificates of their member- 
ship and conduct ; without which they cannot gain mem- 
bership in such meetings. Each monthly meeting is re- 
quired to appoint certain persons, under the name of 
overseers, who are to take care that the rules of our dis- 
cipline be put in practice ; and when any case of complaint 
or disorderly conduct comes to their knowledge, to see that 
private admonition, agreeably to the gospel rule before 
mentioned, be given, previously to its being laid before the 
monthly meeting. 

" When a case is introduced, it is usual for a small com- 
mittee to be appointed to visit the offender, to endeavor to 
convince him of his error, and to induce him to forsake 
and condemn it. If they succeed, the person is by minute 
declared to have made satisfaction for the offence ; if not, 
he is disowned as a member of the society. 

"In disputes between individuals, it has long been the 
decided judgment of the society that its members should 
not sue each other at law. It therefore enjoins all to end 
their differences by speedy and impartial arbitration, 
agreeably to rules laid down. If any refuse to adopt this 
mode, or, having adopted it, to submit to the award, it is 
the direction of the yearly meeting that such be disowned. 

" To monthly meetings also belongs the allowing of 
marriages ; for our society hath always scrupled to ac- 
knowledge the exclusive authority of the priests in the 
solemnization of marriage. Those who intend to marry 
appear together, and propose their intention to the monthly 
meeting ; and if not attended by their parents and guar- 



QUAKERS. 



223 



dians, produce a written certificate of their consent, signed 
in the presence of witnesses. The meeting then appoints 
a committee to inquire whether they be clear of other en- 
gagements respecting marriage ; and if at a subsequent 
meeting, to which the parties also come and declare the 
continuance of their intention, no objections be reported, 
they have the meeting's consent to solemnize their in- 
tended marriage. This is done in a public meeting for 
worship, towards the close whereof the parties stand up, 
and solemnly take each other for husband and wife. A 
certificate of the proceedings is then publicly read, and 
signed by the parties, and afterwards by the relations and 
others as witnesses. Of such marriage the monthly meet- 
ing keeps a record ; as also of the births and burials of 
its members. A certificate of the date, of the name of 
the infant, and of its parents, signed by those present at 
the birth, is the subject of one of these last-mentioned 
records; and an order for the interment, countersigned by 
the grave-maker, of the other. The naming of children 
is without ceremony. Burials are also conducted in a sim- 
ple manner. The body, followed by the relations and 
friends, is sometimes, previously to interment, carried to a 
meeting ; and at the grave a pause is generally made ; on 
both which occasions it frequently falls out that one or 
more friends present have somewhat to express for the edi- 
fication of those who attend ; but no religious rite is con- 
sidered as an essential part of burial. 

" Several monthly meetings compose a quarterly meet- 
ing. At the quarterly meeting are produced written 
answers from the monthly meetings to certain queries re- 
specting the conduct of their members, and the meeting's 
care over them. The accounts thus received are digested 
into one, which is sent, also in the form of answers to 
queries, by representatives to the yearly meeting. Ap- 



224 



QUAKERS. 



peals from the judgment of monthly meetings are brought 
to the quarterly meetings, whose business also it is to assist 
in any difficult case, or where remissness appears in the 
care of the monthly meetings over the individuals who 
compose them. There are seven yearly meetings, viz. : 

1. London, to which come representatives from Ireland ; 

2. New England ; 3. New York ; 4. Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey ; 5. Maryland ; 6. Virginia ; 7. The Carolinas 
and Georgia. 

" The yearly meeting has the general superintendence 
of the society in the country in which it is established ; 
and, therefore, as the accounts which it receives discover 
the state of inferior meetings, as particular exigencies re- 
quire, or as the meeting is impressed with a sense of duty, 
it gives its advice, making such regulations as appear to 
be requisite, or excites to the observance of those already 
made ; and sometimes appoints committees to visit those 
quarterly meetings which appear to be in need of imme- 
diate advice. Appeals from the judgment of quarterly 
meetings are here finally determined ; and a brotherly cor- 
respondence, by epistles, is maintained with other yearly 
meetings. 

" In this place it is proper to add, that, as we believe 
women may be rightly called to the work of the ministry, 
we also think that to them belongs a share in the support 
of our Christian discipline ; and that some parts of it 
wherein their own sex is concerned, devolve on them with 
peculiar propriety ; accordingly they have monthly, quar- 
terly, and yearly meetings of their own sex, held at the 
same time, and in the same place with those of the men ; 
but separately, and without the power of making rules ; 
and it may be remarked, that during the persecutions 
which in the last century occasioned the imprisonment of 



QUAKERS. 



225 



so many of the men, the care of the poor often fell on the 
women, and was by them satisfactorily administered. 

" In order that those who are in the situation of minis- 
ters may have the tender sympathy and counsel of those 
of either sex who, by their experience in the work of reli- 
gion, are qualified for that service, the monthly meetings 
are advised to select such, under the denomination of 
elders. These, and ministers approved by their monthly 
meetings, have meetings peculiar to themselves, called 
meetings of ministers and elders ; in which they have an 
opportunity of exciting each other to a discharge of their 
several duties, and of extending advice to those who may 
appear to be weak, without any needless exposure. Such 
meetings are generally held in the compass of each 
monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting. They are con- 
ducted by rules prescribed by the yearly meeting, and 
have no authority to make any alteration or addition to 
them. The members of them unite with their brethren in 
the meetings for discipline, and are equally accountable to 
the latter for their conduct. 

" It is to a meeting of this kind in London, called the 
second day's morning meeting, that the revisal of manu- 
scripts concerning our principles, previously to publication, 
is intrusted by the yearly meeting ; and also the granting, 
in the intervals of the yearly meeting, of certificates of 
approbation to such ministers as are concerned to travel in 
the work of the ministry in foreign parts, in addition to 
those granted by their monthly or quarterly meetings. 
When a visit of this kind doth not extend beyond Great 
Britain, a certificate from the monthly meeting of which 
the minister is a member, is sufficient ; if to Ireland, the 
concurrence of the quarterly meeting is also required. 
Regulations of similar tendency obtain in other yearly 
meetings. 

P 



226 



QUAKERS. 



" The yearly meeting of London, in the year 1675, ap- 
pointed a meeting to be held in that city, for the purpose 
of advising and assisting in cases of suffering for con- 
science' sake, which hath continued with great use to the 
society to this day. It is composed of friends, under the 
name of correspondents, chosen by the several quarterly 
meetings, and who reside in or near the society. The 
same meetings also appoint members of their own in the 
country as correspondents, who are to join their brethren 
in London on emergency. The names of all these corres- 
pondents, previously to their being recorded as such, are 
submitted to the approbation of the yearly meeting. 
Those of the men who are approved ministers are also 
members of this meeting, which is called the meeting for 
sufferings — a name arising from its original purpose, which 
is not yet become entirely obsolete. 

" The yearly meeting has intrusted the meeting for suf- 
ferings with the care of printing and distributing books, 
and with the management of its stock ; and, considered as 
a standing committee of the yearly meeting, it hath a 
general care of whatever may arise, during the intervals 
of that meeting, affecting the society, and requiring imme- 
diate attention, particularly of those circumstances which 
may occasion an application to government. 

" There is not, in any of the meetings which have been 
mentioned, any president, as we believe that divine wisdom 
alone ought to preside ; nor hath any member a right to 
claim pre-eminence over the rest. The office of clerk, 
with a few exceptions, is undertaken voluntarily by some 
member, as is also the keeping of the records. When 
these are very voluminous, and require a house for their 
deposit (as is the case in London, where the general re- 
cords of the society in Great Britain are kept), a clerk is 
hired to have the care of them ; but except a few clerks 



QUAKERS. 



227 



of this kind, and persons who have the care of meeting- 
houses, none receive any stipend or gratuity for their ser- 
vices in our religious society." 

George Fox, the founder of this sect, was Drought be- 
fore two justices- in Derbyshire, one of whom reviled him, 
and bade him tremble at the word of the Lord. From this 
circumstance arose the appellation Quakers, usually given 
to his followers ; they call themselves Friends, from the 
scriptural salutation, "Our friends salute thee." In 1656 
they came to America, and settled principally in Pennsyl- 
vania. They are opposed to the practice of taking oaths, 
and to war, in all its forms. They agree with the Bap- 
tists in denying the validity of infant baptism. They ex- 
tend the privilege of preaching the gospel to females as 
well as to males. They have also peculiar notions in re- 
gard to dress, plainness and simplicity in language, etc. 

Within a few years past, in this country, there has been 
a serious schism among the Quakers — a part professing 
the doctrines of Unitarianism, and called KicJcsites, from 
their leader, the late Elias Hicks ; the other portion adhe- 
ring to the orthodox doctrines. It having been made a 
question which of them ought to be considered as seceding 
from the doctrines of the original sect, the yearly meeting 
of the Friends in London, May 20, 1829, sent forth an 
epistle containing a statement of their belief ; from which 
it appears that they fully believe in the inspiration of the 
Scriptures, the supreme divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and in the atonement by his sufferings and death. By 
late reports, it appears that there are in the United States 
about 150,000 members of this society, of whom more 
than 50,000 are Hicksites ; the remainder principally 
orthodox. 



228 



ARIANS. 



ARIANS. 

Arians, followers of Arius, a presbyter of the church 
of Alexandria, about 315, who maintained that the Son of 
God was totally and essentially distinct from the Father ; 
that he was the first and noblest of those beings whom 
God had created — the instrument, by whose subordinate 
operation he formed the universe ; and, therefore, inferior 
to the Father both in nature and dignity ; also, that the 
Holy Ghost was not God, but created by the power of the 
Son. 

The Arians owned that the Son was the "Word; but 
denied that Word to have been eternal. They held that 
Christ had nothing of man in him but the flesh, to which 
the Xo^os, or word, was joined, which was the same as the 
soul in us. The Arians were first condemned and ana- 
thematized by a council at Alexandria, in 320, under 
Alexander, bishop of that city, who accused Arius of 
impiety, and caused him to be expelled from the commu- 
nion of the church ; and afterwards by 380 fathers in the 
general council of Nice, assembled by Constantine, in 325. 
His doctrine, however, was not extinguished ; on the con- 
trary, it became the reigning religion, especially in the east. 

Arius was recalled from banishment by Constantine in 
two or three years after the council of Nice, and the laws 
that had been enacted against him were repealed. Not- 
withstanding this, Athanasius, then bishop of Alexandria, 
refused to admit him and his followers to communion. 
This so enraged them, that, by their interest at court, they 
procured that prelate to be deposed and banished ; but the 
church of Alexandria still refusing to admit Arius into 
their communion, the emperor sent for him to Constant!- 



ARIANS. 



229 



nople ; where upon delivering in a fresh confession of his 
faith in terms less offensive, the emperor commanded him 
to be received into their communion ; but that very even- 
ing, it is said, Arius died as his friends were conducting 
him in triumph to the great church of Constantinople. 

Arius, pressed by a natural want, stepped aside, but 
expired on the spot, his bowels gushing out. The Arian 
party, however, found a protector in Constantinus, who 
succeeded his father in the East. They underwent various 
revolutions and persecutions under succeeding emperors, 
till, at length, Theodosius the Great exerted every effort 
to suppress them. Their doctrine was carried, in the fifth 
century, into Africa, under the Vandals ; and into Asia 
under the Goths. Italy, Gaul, and Spain, were also 
deeply infected with it ; and towards the commencement 
of the sixth century, it was triumphant in many parts of 
Asia, Africa, and Europe ; but it sunk almost at once, 
when the Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the 
Goths out of Italy by the arms of Justinian. However, it 
revived again in Italy, under the protection of the Lom- 
bards, in the seventh century, and was not extinguished 
till about the end of the eighth. Arianism was again 
revived in the West by Servetus, in 1531, for which he 
suffered death. 

After this, the doctrine got footing in Geneva and in 
Poland ; but at length degenerated in a great measure 
into Socinianism. Erasmus, it is thought, aimed at 
reviving it, in his commentaries on the New Testament ; 
and the learned Grotius seems to lean that way. Mr. 
Whiston was one of the first divines who revived this con- 
troversy in the eighteenth century. He was followed by 
Dr. Clarke, who was chiefly opposed by Dr. Waterland. 
Those who hold the doctrine which is usually called Low 
Arianism, say that Christ pre-existed; but not as the 
20 



230 



ARMENIANS. 



eternal Logos of the Father, or as the being by whom he 
made the worlds, and had intercourse with the patriarchs, 
or as having any certain rank or employment whatever in 
the divine dispensations. In modern times, the term Avian 
is indiscriminately applied to those who consider Jesus 
simply subordinate to the Father. Some of them believe 
Christ to have been the creator of the world ; but they all 
maintain that he existed previously to his incarnation, 
though in his pre-existent state they assign him different 
degrees of dignity. Hence the terms High and Low Avian. 



AEMENIANS. 

The Armenians are the inhabitants of Armenia, whose 
religion is the Christian of the Eutychian sect ; that is, 
they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ. They assert 
also the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father 
only. They believe that Christ, at his descent into hell, 
freed the souls of the damned from thence, and reprieved 
them to the end of the world, when they shall be remanded 
to eternal flames. They believe that the souls of the 
righteous shall not be admitted to the beatific vision till 
after the resurrection, notwithstanding which they pray 
to departed saints, adore their pictures, and burn lamps 
before them. The Armenian clergy consist of patriarchs, 
archbishops, doctors, secular priests, and monks. The 
Armenian monks are of the order of St. Basil ; and every 
Wednesday and Friday they eat neither fish, nor eggs, 
nor oil, nor anything made of milk ; and during Lent they 
live -upon nothing but roots. They have seven sacraments, 
baptism, confirmation, penance, the eucharist, extreme 



ARMINIANS. 



281 



unction, orders, and matrimony. They admit infants to 
the communion at two or three months old. They seem 
to place the chief part of their religion in fastings and 
abstinences ; and, among the clergy, the higher the degree, 
the lower they must live ; insomuch, that it is said the 
archbishops live on nothing but pulse. They consecrate 
holy water but once a year, at which time every one fills 
a pot and carries it home, which brings in a considerable 
revenue to the church. 



ARMINIANS. 

The Arminians are persons who follow the doctrines of 
Arminius, who was pastor at Amsterdam, and afterwards 
professor of divinity at Leyden. Arminius had been 
educated in the opinions of Calvin ; but, thinking the 
doctrine of that great man with regard to free will, pre- 
destination, and grace, too severe, he began to express his 
doubts concerning them in the year 1591 ; and, upon 
further inquiry, adopted the sentiments of those whose 
religious system extends the love of the Supreme Being 
and the merits of Jesus Christ to all mankind. The 
Arminians are also called Remonstrants, because, in 1611, 
they presented a remonstrance to the states-general, 
wherein they state their grievances, and pray for relief. 

The distinguishing tenets of the Arminians may be 
comprised in the five following articles relative to predes- 
tination, universal redemption, the corruption of man, 
conversion, and perseverance, viz. : 

I. That God, from all eternity, determined to bestow 
salvation on those who he foresaw would persevere unto 
the end ; and to inflict everlasting punishments on those 
who should continue their unbelief, and resist his divine 



232 



ARMINIANS. 



succors ; so that election was conditional, and reprobation 
in like manner the result of foreseen infidelity and perse- 
vering wickedness. 

II. That Jesus Christ, by his sufferings and death, made 
an atonement for the sins of all mankind in general, and 
of every individual in particular ; that, however, none but 
those who believe in him can be partakers of divine benefits. 

III. That true faith cannot proceed from the exercise 
of our natural faculties and powers, nor from the force 
and operation of free will ; since man, in consequence of 
his natural corruption, is incapable either of thinking or 
doing any good thing ; and that, therefore, it is necessary, 
in order to his conversion and salvation, that he be re- 
generated and renewed by the operations of the Holy 
Ghost, which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. 

IV. That this divine grace or energy of the Holy Ghost 
begins and perfects everything that can be called good in 
man, and, consequently, all good works are to be attributed 
to God alone ; that, nevertheless, this grace is offered to 
all, and does not force men to act against their inclinations, 
but may be resisted and rendered ineffectual by the per- 
verse will of the impenitent sinner. Some modern Armin- 
ians interpret this and the last article with a greater 
latitude. 

V. That God gives to the truly faithful, who are regene- 
rated by his grace, the means of preserving themselves in 
this state. The first Arminians, indeed, had some doubt 
with respect to the closing part of this article ; but their 
followers uniformly maintain "that the regenerate may 
lose true justifying faith, fall from a state of grace, and 
die in their sins." 

After the appointment of Arminius to the theological 
chair at Leyden, he thought it his duty to avow and vin- 
dicate the principles which he had embraced ; and the 



ARMINIANS. 



233 



freedom with which he published and defended them, 
exposed him to the resentment of those that adhered to 
the theological system of Geneva, which then prevailed in 
Holland ; but his principal opponent was Gomar, his col- 
league. The controversy which was thus begun became 
more general after the death of Arminius, in the year 
1609, and threatened to involve the United Provinces in 
civil discord. The Arminian tenets gained ground under 
the mild and favorable treatment of the magistrates of 
Holland, and were adopted by several persons of merit 
and distinction. The Calvanists or Gomarists, as they 
were now called, appealed to a national synod ; accord- 
ingly, the synod of Dort convened, by order of the states- 
general, in 1618 ; and was composed of ecclesiastic depu- 
ties from the United Provinces, as well as from the re- 
formed churches of England, Hessia, Bremen, Switzerland, 
and the Palatinate. The principal advocate in favor of 
the Arminians was Episcopius, who at that time was pro- 
fessor of divinity at Leyden. It was first proposed to 
discuss the principal subjects in dispute, that the Arminians 
should be allowed to state and vindicate the grounds on 
which their opinions were founded ; but, some difference 
arising as to the proper mode of conducting the debate, 
the Arminians were excluded from the assembly, their 
case was tried in their absence, and they were pronounced 
guilty of pestilential errors, and condemned as corrupters 
of the true religion. A curious account of the proceedings 
of the above synod may be seen in a series of letters 
written by Mr. John Hales, who was present on the 
occasion. 

In consequence of the above-mentioned decision, the 
Arminians were considered as enemies to their country 
and its established religion, and were much persecuted. 
They were treated with great severity, and deprived of all 
20* 



234 



BAXTERIANS. 



their posts and employments ; their ministers were silenced, 
and their congregations were suppressed. The great 
Barneveldt was beheaded on a scaffold ; and the learned 
Grotius, being condemned to perpetual imprisonment, fled, 
and took refuge in France. 

After the death of Prince Maurice, who had been a 
violent partisan in favor of the Gomarists, in the year 
1625, the Arminian exiles were restored to their former 
reputation and tranquillity ; and, under the toleration of 
the state, they erected churches and founded a college at 
Amsterdam, appointing Episcopius the first theological 
professor. The Arminian system has very much prevailed 
in England since the time of Archbishop Laud, and its 
votaries in other countries are very numerous. It is 
generally supposed that a majority of the clergy in both 
the established churches of Great Britain favor the 
Arminian system, notwithstanding their articles are strictly 
Calvinistic. The name of Mr. John Wesley need hardly 
be mentioned here. Every one knows what an advocate 
he was for the tenets of Arminius, and the success he met 
with. 



THE BAXTERIANS 

Are so called from the learned and pious Mr. Richard 
Baxter, who was born in the year 1615. His design was 
to reconcile Calvin and Arminius : for this purpose he 
formed a middle scheme between their systems. He 
taught that God had elected some, whom he is determined 
to save, without any foresight of their good works : and 
that others to whom the gospel is preached have common 
grace, which, if they improve, they shall obtain saving 
grace, according to the doctrine of Arminius. This deno- 



BAXTER IANS. 



235 



mination own, with Calvin, that the merits of Christ's 
death are to be applied to believers only ; but thej also 
assert that all men are in a state capable of salvation. 

Mr. Baxter maintains that there may be a certainty of 
perseverance here, and yet he cannot tell whether a man 
may not have so weak a degree of saving grace as to lose 
it again. 

In order to prove that the death of Christ has put all in 
a state capable of salvation, the following arguments are 
alleged by this learned author : — -I. It was the nature of 
all mankind which Christ assumed at his incarnation, and 
the sins of all mankind were the occasion of his suffering. 
— 2. It was to Adam, as the common father of lapsed 
mankind, that God made the promise (Gen. iii. 15). The 
conditional new covenant does equally give Christ, pardon, 
and life to all mankind, on condition of acceptance. The 
conditional grant is universal : Whoever believeth shall be 
saved. — 3. It is not to the elect only, but to all mankind, 
that Christ has commanded his ministers to proclaim his 
gospel, and offer the benefits of his procuring. 

There are, Mr. Baxter allows, certain fruits of Christ's 
death which are proper to the elect only: — 1. Grace even- 
tually worketh in them true faith, repentance, conversion, 
and union with Christ as his living members. — 2. The 
actual forgiveness of sin as to the spiritual and eternal 
punishment. — 3. Our reconciliation with God, and adop- 
tion and right to the heavenly inheritance. — 4. The Spirit 
of Christ to dwell in us and sanctify us, by a habit of 
divine love, Bom. viii. 9-13; Gal. v. 6. — 5. Employment 
in holy, acceptable service, and access in prayer, with a 
promise of being heard through Christ, Heb. ii. 5, 6; 
John xiv. 13. — 6. Well-grounded hopes of salvation, 
peace of conscience, and spiritual communion with the 
Church mystical in heaven and earth, Bom. v. 12 ; Heb. 



236 



SHAKERS. 



xii. 22. — 7. A special interest in Christ and intercession 
with the Father, Rom. viii. 32, 33. 8. Resurrection unto 
life, and justification in judgment ; glorification of the soul 
at death, and of the body at the resurrection, Phil. iii. 20, 
21 ; 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 3. 

Christ has made a conditional deed of gift of these 
benefits to all mankind ; but the elect only accept and 
possess them. Hence he infers that, though Christ never 
absolutely intended or decreed that his death should even- 
tually put all men in possession of those benefits, yet he 
did intend and decree that all men should have a condi- 
tional gift of them by his death. 

Baxter, it is said, wrote one hundred and twenty books, 
and had sixty written against him. Twenty thousand of 
his Call to the Unconverted were sold in one year. He 
told a friend that six brothers were converted by reading 
that Call. The eminent Mr. Elliott, of New England, 
translated this tract into the Indian tongue. A young 
Indian prince was so taken with it, that he read it with 
tears, and died with it in his hand. 



SHAKERS. 

A sect which was instituted about the year 1774, in 
England. Ann Lee, whom they style the Elect Lady, 
is the head of this party. They assert that she is the 
woman spoken of in the 12th chapter of Revelations, and 
that she speaks seventy-two tongues ; and though those 
tongues are unintelligible to the living, she converses with 
the dead, who understand her language. They add further, 
that she is the mother of all the elect, and that she travails 
for the whole world ; that, in fine, no blessing can descend 



SHAKERS. 



237 



to any person but only by and through her, and that in 
the way of her being possessed of their sins by their con- 
fessing and repenting of them, one by one, according to 
her direction. They vary in their exercises : their heavy 
dancing, as it is called, is performed by a perpetual spring- 
ing from the house floor, about four inches up and down, 
both in the men's and women's apartments, moving about 
with extraordinary transport, singing sometimes one at a 
time, and sometimes more. This elevation affects the 
nerves, so that they have intervals of shuddering, as if they 
were in a violent fit of the ague. They sometimes clap 
their hands, and leap so high as to strike the joists above 
their heads. They throw off their outside garment in these 
exercises, and spend their strength very cheerfully this 
way : their chief speaker often calls for their attention, 
when they all stop, and hear some harangue, and then 
begin dancing again. They assert that their dancing is 
the token of the great joy and happiness of the Jerusalem 
state, and denotes the victory over sin. One of their most 
favorite exertions is turning round very swiftly for an hour 
or two. This, they say, is to show the great power of God. 
Such is the account which different writers have given us 
of this sect ; but others observe that though, at first, they 
used these violent gesticulations, now they have " a regular, 
solemn, uniform dance, or genuflection, to a regular, solemn 
hymn, which is sung by the elders, and as regularly con- 
ducted as a proper band of music." See New York Theol. 
Mag. for Nov. and Dec. 1795. 

SHAKERS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

This society is sometimes called the Millennial Church. 
They are denominated Shakers, from the violent bodily 
commotions with which they are sometimes seized. In 
1780, ten or twelve individuals came to this country from 



238 



THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 



England. In 1787, they formed themselves into a society 
at New Lebanon, New York, and established a community 
of goods in all respects. Their general employments are 
agriculture and the mechanic arts. They are remarkable 
for their neatness, sobriety, honesty, and harmlessness. 
Their peculiar manner of worship is by dancing. Societies 
of Shakers are formed at Alfred and New Gloucester, Me.; 
Canterbury and Enfield, N. H. ; Shirley, Harvard, Tyring- 
ham, and Hancock, Mass. ; Enfield, Conn. ; Watervliet and 
New Lebanon, N. Y. ; Union Village and Watervliet, Ohio ; 
Pleasant Hill and South Union, Ky. Number of societies 
16 ; preachers, 45 ; population, 5,400. 



THEOPHILANTHEOPISTS 

Are a sect of Deists who, in September, 1796, published 
at Paris a sort of catechism or directory for social worship, 
under the title of Manuel des Theanthrophiles. This reli- 
gious breviary found favor ; the congregation became nu- 
merous ; and in the second edition of their Manuel they 
assumed the less harsh denomination of Theophilanthro- 
2Msts, i. e., lovers of God and man. According to them, 
the temple the most worthy of the Divinity is the universe. 
Abandoned sometimes under the vault of heaven to the 
contemplation of the beauties of nature, they render its 
Author the homage of adoration and of gratitude. They 
nevertheless have temples erected by the hands of men, in 
which it is more commodious for them to assemble, to hear 
lessons concerning his wisdom. Certain moral inscriptions, 
a simple altar, on which they deposit a sign of gratitude 
for the benefits of the Creator, such flowers or fruits as the 



THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 



239 



seasons afford, a tribute for the lectures and discourses, 
form the whole of the ornaments of their temples. 

The first inscription, placed above the altar, recalls to 
remembrance the two religious dogmas which are the foun- 
dation of their moral. 

First inscription. — We believe in the existence of God, 
in the immortality of the soul. Second inscription. — Wor- 
ship God, cherish your kind, render yourselves useful to 
your country. Third inscription. — Good is everything 
which tends to the preservation or the perfection of man. 
Evil is everything which tends to destroy or deteriorate 
him. Fourth inscription. — Children, honor your fathers 
and mothers; obey them with affection, comfort their 
old age. Fathers and mothers, instruct your children. 
Fifth inscription. — Wives, regard your husbands, the chiefs 
of your houses. Husbands, love your wives, and render 
yourselves reciprocally happy. 

From the concluding part of the Manuel of the Theophi- 
lanthropists, we may learn something more of their senti- 
ments. "If any one ask you," say they, "what is the 
origin of your religion and of your worship, you can answer 
him thus : Open the most ancient books which are known, 
seek there what was the religion, what the worship of the 
first human beings of which history has preserved the re- 
membrance. There you will see that their religion was 
what we now call natural religion, because it has for its 
principle even the Author of nature. It is he that has 
engraven it in the heart of the first human beings, in ours, 
in that of all the inhabitants of the earth ; this religion, 
which consists in worshipping God and cherishing our kind, 
is what we express by one single word, that of Theophi- 
lanthropy. Thus our religion is that of our first parents ; 
it is yours ; it is ours ; it is the universal religion. As to 
our worship, it is also that of our first fathers. See even 



240 



THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 



in the most ancient writings, that the exterior signs by 
which they rendered their homage to the Creator were of 
great simplicity. They dressed for him an altar of earth ; 
they offered him, in sign of their gratitude and of their 
submission, some of the productions which they held of his 
liberal hand. The fathers exhorted their children to virtue ; 
they all encouraged one another, under the auspices of the 
Divinity, to the accomplishment of their duties. This simple 
worship the sages of all nations have not ceased to profess, 
and they have transmitted it down to us without inter- 
ruption. 

" If they yet ask you of whom you hold your mission, 
answer, we hold it of God himself, who, in giving us two 
arms to aid our kind, has also given us intelligence to mu- 
tually enlighten us, and the love of good to bring us to- 
gether to virtue ; of God, who has given experience and 
wisdom to the aged to guide the young, and authority to 
fathers to conduct their children. 

"If they are not struck with the force of those reasons, 
do not farther discuss the subject, and do not engage your- 
self in controversies, which tend to diminish the love of our 
neighbors. Our principles are the Eternal Truth ; they 
will subsist, whatever individuals may support or attack 
them, and the efforts of the wicked will not even prevail 
against them. Rest firmly attached to them, without attack- 
ing or defending any religious system ; and remember that 
similar discussions have never produced good, and that 
they have often tinged the earth with the blood of men. 
Let us lay aside systems, and apply ourselves to doing 
good; it is the only road to happiness." So much for the 
divinity of the Theophilanthropists ; a system entirely de- 
fective, because it wants the true foundation, — the word 
of God ; the grand rule of all our actions, and the only 
basis on which our hopes and prospects of success can be 
built. 



GNOSTICS. 



241 



GNOSTICS. 

The Gnostics were ancient heretics, famous from the 
first rise of Christianity, principally in the east. It 
appears from several passages of Scripture, particularly 
1 John ii. 18 ; 1 Tim. vi. 20 ; Col. ii. 8 ; that many per- 
sons were infected with the Gnostic heresy in the first 
century ; though the sect did not render itself conspicuous, 
either for numbers or reputation, before the time of Adrian, 
when some writers erroneously date its rise. The name 
was adopted by this sect, on the presumption that they 
were the only persons who had the true knowledge of 
Christianity. Accordingly, they looked on all other 
Christians as simple, ignorant, and barbarous persons, who 
explained and interpreted the sacred "writings in a low, 
literal, and unedifying signification. At first, the Gnostics 
were the only philosophers and wits of those times, who 
formed for themselves a peculiar system of theology, 
agreeable to the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato ; to 
which they accommodated all their interpretations of 
Scripture. But Gnostics afterwards became a generical 
name, comprehending divers sects and parties of heretics, 
who rose in the first centuries ; and who, though they dif- 
fered among themselves as to circumstances, yet all agreed 
in some common principles. They corrupted the doctrine 
of the Gospel by a profane mixture of the tenets of the 
oriental philosophy, concerning the origin of evil and the 
creation of the world, with its divine truths. Such were the 
Yalentinians, Simonians, Carpocratians, Nicolaitans, &c. 

Gnostic sometimes also occurs in a good sense, in the 
ancient ecclesiastical writers, particularly Clemens Alex- 
andrinus, who in the person of his Gnostic describes the 
21 Q 



242 



GNOSTICS. 



characters and qualities of a perfect Christian. This point 
he labors in the seventh book of his Strom at a, where he 
shows that none but the Gnostic or learned person has 
any true religion. He affirms that, were it possible for 
the knowledge of God to be separated from eternal salva- 
tion, the Gnostic would make no scruple to choose the 
knowledge ; and that if God would promise him impunity 
in doing anything that he has once spoken against, or offer 
him heaven on those terms, he would never alter a whit of 
his measures. In this sense the father uses Gnostics, in 
opposition to the heretics of the same name ; affirming that 
the true Gnostic is grown old in the study of the holy 
Scripture, and that he preserves the orthodox doctrine of 
the apostles, and of the church ; whereas the false Gnostic 
abandons all the apostolical traditions as imagining himself 
wiser than the apostles. 

Gnostics was sometimes also more particularly used for 
the successors of the Nicolaitans and Carpocratians, in the 
second century, upon their laying aside the names of the 
first authors. Such as would be thoroughly acquainted 
with all their doctrines, reveries, and visions, may consult 
St. Irenseus, TertulUan, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, 
and St. Epiphanius ; particularly the first of these writers, 
who relates their sentiments at large, and confutes them. 
Indeed he dwells more on the Valentinians than any other 
sect of Gnostics ; but he shows the general principles 
whereon all their mistaken opinions were founded, and the 
method they followed in explaining Scripture. He accuses 
them of introducing into religion certain vain and ridicu- 
lous genealogies, i. e. a kind of divine processions or ema- 
nations, which had no other foundation but in their own 
wild imagination. The Gnostics confessed that these 
aeons, or emanations, were nowhere expressly delivered in 
the sacred writings ; but insisted that Jesus Christ had 



GNOSTICS. 



243 



intimated them in parables to such as could understand 
them. They built their theology not only on the Gospels 
and the epistles of St. Paul, but also on the law of Moses 
and the prophets. These last were peculiarly serviceable 
to them, on. account of the allegories and allusions with 
which they abound, which are capable of different inter- 
pretations, though their doctrine concerning the creation 
of the world by one or more inferior beings of an evil or 
imperfect nature, led them to deny the divine authority of 
the books of the Old Testament, which contradicted this 
idle fiction, and filled them with an abhorrence of Moses 
and the religion he taught ; alleging that he was actuated 
by the malignant author of this world, who consulted his 
own glory and authority, and not the real advantage of 
men. Their persuasion that evil resided in matter, as its 
centre and source, made them treat the body with contempt, 
discourage marriage, and reject the doctrine of the resur- 
rection of the body, and its reunion with the immortal 
spirit. Their notion that malevolent genii presided in 
nature, and occasioned diseases and calamities, wars and 
desolations, induced them to apply themselves to the study 
of magic, in order to weaken the powers, or suspend the 
influence of these malignant agents. The Gnostics con- 
sidered Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and inferior to the 
Father, who came into the world for the rescue and hap- 
piness of miserable mortals, oppressed by matter and evil 
beings; but they rejected our Lord's humanity, on the 
principle that everything corporeal is essentially and in- 
trinsically evil ; and therefore the greatest part of them 
denied the reality of his sufferings. They set a great value 
on the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, where they 
fancied they saw a great deal of their aeons, or emanations, 
under the terms, the word, the life, the light, &c. They 
divided all nature into three kinds of beings, viz. : hylic, 



244 



GNOSTICS. 



or material ; psychic, or animal ; and pneumatic, or spi- 
ritual. On the like principle they also distinguished three 
sorts of men ; material, animal, and spiritual The first, 
who were material, and incapable of knowledge, inevitably 
perished, both soul and body ; the third, such as the 
Gnostics themselves pretended to be, were all certainly 
saved; the psychic, or animal, who were the middle 
between the other two, were capable either of being saved 
or damned, according to their good or evil actions. With 
regard to their moral doctrines and conduct, they were 
much divided. The greatest part of this sect adopted very 
austere rules of life, recommended rigorous abstinence, and 
prescribed severe bodily mortifications, with a view of 
purifying and exalting the mind. However, some main- 
tained that there was no moral difference in human actions; 
and thus confounding right with wrong, they gave a loose 
rein to all the passions, and asserted the innocence of fol- 
lowing blindly all their motions, and of living, by their 
tumultuous dictates. They supported their opinions and 
practice by various authorities ; some referred to fictitious 
and apocryphal writings of Adam, Abraham, Zoroaster, 
Christ, and his apostles ; others boasted that they had 
deduced their sentiments from secret doctrines of Christ, 
concealed from the vulgar ; others affirmed that they 
arrived at superior degrees of wisdom by an innate vigor 
of mind ; and others asserted that they were instructed in 
these mysterious parts of theological science by Theudas, 
a disciple of St. Paul, and by Matthias, one of the friends 
of our Lord. The tenets of the ancient Gnostics were 
revived in Spain, in the fourth century, by a sect called 
the Priscillianists. At length the name Gnostic, which 
originally was glorious, became infamous, by the idle 
opinions and dissolute lives of the persons who bore it. 



HUSSITES. 



245 



HUSSITES, 

A party of reformers, the followers of John Huss. — John 
Huss, from whom the Hussites take their name, was born 
in a little village in Bohemia, called Huss, and lived at 
Prague in the highest reputation, both on account of the 
sanctity of his manners and the purity of his doctrine. 
He was distinguished by his uncommon erudition and elo- 
quence ; and performed at the same time the functions of 
professor of divinity in the university, and of ordinary 
pastor in the church of that city. He adopted the senti- 
ments of Wickliffe and the Waldenses ; and, in the year 
1407, began openly to oppose and preach against divers 
errors in doctrine, as well as corruptions in point of disci- 
pline, then reigning in the Church. Huss likewise endea- 
vored to the utmost of his power to withdraw the univer- 
sity of Prague from the jurisdiction of Gregory XII., 
whom the king of Bohemia had hitherto acknowledged as 
the true and lawful head of the Church. This occasioned 
a violent quarrel between the incensed Archbishop of 
Prague and the zealous Reformer, which the latter inflamed 
and augmented from day to day, by his pathetic exclama- 
tions against the court of Rome, and the corruption that 
prevailed among the sacerdotal order. 

There were other circumstances that contributed to 
inflame the resentment of the clergy against him. He 
adopted the philosophical opinions of the Realists, and 
vehemently opposed and even persecuted the Nominalists, 
whose number and influence were considerable in the Uni- 
versity of Prague. He also multiplied the number of his 
enemies in the year 1408, by procuring through his own 
21* 



246 



HUSSITES. 



credit, a sentence in favor of the Bohemians, who disputed 
with the Germans concerning the number of suffrages 
which their respective nations were entitled to in all mat- 
ters that were carried by election in this university. In 
consequence of a decree obtained in favor of the former, 
which restored them to their constitutional right of three 
suffrages, usurped by the latter, the Germans withdrew 
from Prague, and in the year 1409, founded a new aca- 
demy at Leipsic. This event no sooner happened than 
Huss began to inveigh, with greater freedom than he had 
done before, against the vices and corruptions of the 
clergy ; and to recommend in a public manner the writings 
and opinions of Wickliffe, as far as they related to the 
papal hierarchy, the despotism of the court of Rome, and 
the corruption of the clergy. Hence, an accusation was 
brought against him, in the year 1410, before the tribunal 
of John XXIII., by whom he was solemnly expelled from 
the communion of the Church. Notwithstanding this sen- 
tence of excommunication, he proceeded to expose the 
Romish Church with a fortitude and zeal that were almost 
universally applauded. 

This eminent man, whose piety was equally sincere and 
fervent, though his zeal was perhaps too violent, and his 
prudence not always circumspect, was summoned to appear 
before the Council of Constance. Secured, as he thought 
from the rage of his enemies by the safe-conduct granted 
him by the Emperor Sigismund for his journey to Con- 
stance, his residence in that place, and his return to his 
own country, John Huss obeyed the order of the Council, 
and appeared before it to demonstrate his innocence, and 
to prove that the charge of his having deserted the Church 
of Rome was entirely groundless. However, his enemies 
so far prevailed, that by the most scandalous breach of 
public faith, he was cast into prison, declared a heretic, 



HUSSITES. 



247 



because he refused to plead guilty against the dictates of 
his conscience, in obedience to the Council, and burnt alive 
in 1415 ; a punishment which he endured with unparalleled 
magnanimity and resolution. When he came to the place 
of execution, he fell on his knees, sang portions of psalms, 
looked steadfastly towards heaven, and repeated these 
words : " Into Thy hands, Lord, do I commit my spirit ; * 
Thou hast redeemed me, most good and faithful God. 
Lord Jesus Christ assist and help me, that with a firm and 
present mind, by Thy most powerful grace I may undergo 
this most cruel and ignominious death, to which I am con- 
demned for preaching the truth of Thy most holy gospel." 
When the chain was put upon him at the stake, he said, 
with a smiling countenance, " My Lord Jesus Christ was 
bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why 
should I be ashamed of this old rusty one ?" When the 
fagots were piled up to his very neck, the Duke of Bava- 
ria was officious enough to desire him to abjure. "No," 
says Huss, "I never preached any doctrine of an evil ten- 
dency ; and what I taught with my lips I seal with my 
blood." He said to the executioner, "Are you going to 
burn a goose ? In one century you will have a swan you 
can neither roast nor boil." If he were prophetic, he must 
have meant Luther, who had a swan for his arms. The 
fire was then applied to the fagots ; when the martyr sang 
a hymn, with so loud and cheerful a voice, that he was 
heard through all the cracklings of the combustibles and 
the noise of the multitude. At last his voice was cut short, 
after he had uttered, " Jesus Christ, thou Son of the living 
God, have mercy upon me," and he was consumed in a 
most miserable manner. The Duke of Bavaria ordered 
the executioner to throw all the martyr's clothes into the 
flames ; after which his ashes were carefully collected, and 
cast into the Rhine. 



248 



HUTCHINSONIANS. 



But the cause in which this eminent man was engaged 
did not die with him. His disciples adhered to their 
master's doctrines after his death, which broke out into an 
open war. John Ziska, a Bohemian knight, in 1420, put 
himself at the head of the Hussites, who were now become 
a very considerable party, and threw off the despotic yoke 
of Sigismund, who had treated their brethren in the most 
barbarous manner. Ziska was succeded by Procopius, in 
the year 1424. Acts of barbarity were committed on both 
sides ; for, notwithstanding the irreconcilable opposition 
between the religious sentiments of the contending parties, 
they both agreed in this one horrible principle, that it was 
innocent and lawful to persecute and extirpate with fire 
and sword the enemies of the true religion ; and such they 
reciprocally appeared to each other. These commotions 
in a great measure subsided by the interference of the 
Council of Basil, in the year 1433. 

The Hussites, who were divided into two parties, viz. 
the Calixtines and the Taborites, spread over all Bohemia 
and Hungary, and even Silesia and Poland; and there are, 
it is said, some remains of them still subsisting in those 
parts. 



HUTCHINSONIANS. 

Hutchinsonians, the followers of John Hutchinson, 
who was born in Yorkshire, in 1674. In the early part 
of his life he served the Duke of Somerset in the capacity 
of steward ; and in the course of his travels from place to 
place, employed himself in collecting fossils. We are told 
that the large and noble collection bequeathed by Dr. 
Woodward to the University of Cambridge was actually 



HUTCHINSONIANS. 



249 



made by him, and even unfairly obtained from him. In 
1724, he published the first part of his curious book, called 
Moses Principia, in which he ridiculed Dr. Woodward's 
Natural History of the Earth, and exploded the doctrine 
of gravitation established in Newton's Principia. In 1727, 
he published a second part of Moses' Principia, containing 
the principles of the Scripture philosophy. From this 
time to his death, he published a volume every year or 
two, which, with the manuscripts he left behind, were 
published in 1748, in 12 volumes, 8vo. On the Monday 
before his death, Dr. Mead urged him to be bled ; saying, 
pleasantly, "I will soon send you to Moses," meaning his 
studies ; but Mr. Hutchinson, taking it in the literal sense, 
answered, in a muttering tone, " I believe, doctor, you 
will ;" and was so displeased, that he dismissed him for 
another physician ; but he died in a few days after, 
August 28, 1737. 

It appears to be a leading sentiment of this denomina- 
tion, that all our ideas of divinity are formed from the 
ideas in nature, — that nature is a standing picture, and 
Scripture an application of the several parts of the picture, 
to draw out to, as the great things of God, in order to 
reform our mental conceptions. To prove this point, they 
allege that the Scriptures declare the invisible tilings of 
God from the formation of the world are clearly seen, 
being understood by the things which are made ; even his 
eternal power and Godhead, (Rom. i. 20). The heavens 
must declare God's righteousness and truth in the congre- 
gation of the saints, (Ps. lxxxix. 5.) And, in short, the 
whole system of nature, in one voice of analogy, declares 
and gives us ideas of his glory, and shows us his handiwork. 
We cannot have any ideas of invisible things till they are 
pointed out to us by revelation ; and as we cannot know 
them immediately, such as they are in themselves, after 



250 



HUTCHINSONIANS. 



the manner in "which we know sensible objects, they must 
be communicated to us by the mediation of such things as 
we already comprehend. For this reason the Scripture is 
found to have a language of its own, which does not con- 
sist of words, but of signs or figures taken from visible 
things ; in consequence of which, the world we now see 
becomes a sort of commentary on the mind of God, and 
explains the world in which we believe. The doctrines 
of the Christian faith are attested by the whole natural 
world ; they are recorded in a language which has never 
been confounded ; they are written in a text which shall 
never be corrupted. 

The Hutehinsonians maintain that the great mystery 
of the Trinity is conveyed to our understanding by ideas 
of sense ; and that the created substance of the air, or 
heaven, in its threefold agency of fire, light, and spirit, is 
the enigma of the one essence or one Jehovah in three 
persons. The unity of essence is exhibited by its unity of 
substance ; the trinity, of conditions, fire, light, and spirit. 
Thus the one substance of the air, or heaven, in its three 
conditions, shows the unity in trinity ; and its three con- 
ditions in or of one substance, the trinity in unity. For 
(says this denomination) if we consult the writings of the 
Old and New Testament, we shall find the persons of the 
Deity represented under the names and characters of the 
three material agents, fire, light, and spirit, and their 
actions expressed by the actions of these their emblems. 
The Father is called a consuming fire ; and his judicial 
proceedings are spoken of in words which denote the 
several actions of fire. Jehovah is a consuming fire ; our 
God is a consuming fire, (Deut. iv. 24 ; Heb. xii. 29). 
The Son has the name of light, and his purifying actions 
and offices are described by words which denote the actions 
and offices of light. He is the true light, which lighteth 



HUTCHINSONIANS. 



251 



every man that eometh into the world, (John i. 9 ; Mai. iv. 2). 
The Comforter has the name of Spirit ; and his animating 
and sustaining offices are described by words, for the 
actions and offices of the material spirit. His actions in 
the spiritual economy are agreeable to his type in the 
natural economy; such as inspiring, impelling, driving, 
leading, (Matt. ii. 1). The philosophic system of the 
Hutchinsonians is derived from the Hebrew Scriptures. 
The truth of it rests on these suppositions : 1. That the 
Hebrew language was formed under Divine inspiration, 
either all at once, or at different times, as occasion re- 
quired ; and that the Divine Being had a view in construct- 
ing it, to the various revelations which he in all succeeding 
times should make in that language ; consequently, that its 
words must be the most proper and determinate to convey 
such truths as the Deity, during the Old Testament dis- 
pensation, thought fit to make known to the sons of men. 
Further than this, that the inspired penmen of those ages 
at least were under the guidance of heaven in the choice 
of words for recording what was revealed to them : there- 
fore, that the Old Testament, if the language be rightly 
understood, is the most determinate in its meaning of any 
other book under heaven. 2. That whatever is recorded 
in the Old Testament is strictly and literally true, allowing 
only for a few common figures of rhetoric ; that nothing 
contrary to truth is accommodated to vulgar apprehensions. 

In proof of this, the Hutchinsonians argue in this manner. 
The primary and ultimate design of revelation is indeed 
to teach men divinity ; but in subserviency to that, geo- 
graphy, history, and chronology, are occasionally intro- 
duced ; all which are allowed to be just and authentic. 
There are also innumerable references to things of nature, 
and descriptions of them. If, then, the former are just, 
and to be depended on, for the same reason the latter 



252 



HTJTCHINSONIANS. 



ought to be esteemed philosophically true. Further, they 
think it not unworthy of God, that he should make it a 
secondary end of his revelation to unfold the secrets of his 
works ; as the primary was to make known the mysteries 
of his nature, and the designs of his grace, that men might 
thereby be led to admire and adore the wisdom and good- 
ness which the great Author of the universe has displayed 
throughout all his works. And as our minds are often 
referred to natural things for ideas of spiritual truths, it 
is of great importance, in order to conceive aright of divine 
matters, that our ideas of the natural things referred to be 
strictly just and true. 

Mr. Hutchinson found that the Hebrew Scriptures had 
some capital words, which he thought had not been duly 
considered and understood ; and which, he has endeavored 
to prove, contain in their radical meaning the greatest and 
most comfortable truths. The cherubim he explains to be 
a hieroglyphic of Divine construction, or a sacred image, 
to describe, as far as figures could go, the humanity united 
to Deity ; and so he treats of several other words of similar 
import. From all which he concluded, that the rites and 
ceremonies of the Jewish dispensation were so many de- 
lineations of Christ, in what he was to be, to do, and to 
suffer ; that the early Jews knew them to be types of his 
actions and sufferings ; and, by performing them as such, 
were so far Christians both in faith and practice. 

The Hutchinsonians have, for the most part, been men 
of devout minds, zealous in the cause of Christianity, and 
untainted with heterodox opinions, which have so often 
divided the church of Christ. The names of Romaine, 
Bishop Horne, Parkhurst, and others of this denomination, 
will be long esteemed, both for the piety they possessed, 
and the good they have been the instruments of promoting 
amongst mankind. 



ICONOCLASTES. 



253 



ICONOCLASTES. 

Iconoclastes, or Iconoclastge, breakers of images — a 
name which the Church of Rome gives to all who reject 
the use of images in religious matters. The word is Greek, 
formed from sixwv, image, and xkatfrsiv, rumpere, "to 
break." In this sense not only the reformed, but some of 
the eastern churches, are called iconoclastes, and esteemed 
by them heretics, as opposing the worship of the images 
of God and the saints, and breaking their figures and 
representations in churches. 

The opposition to images began in Greece, under the 
reign of Bardanes, who was created emperor of the Greeks 
a little after the commencement of the eighth century, 
when the worship of them became common. But the tu- 
mults occasioned by it were quelled by a revolution, which, 
in 713, deprived Bardanes of the imperial throne. The 
dispute, however, broke out with redoubled fury under Leo 
the Isaurian, who issued an edict in the year 726, abro- 
gating, as some say, the worship of images ; and ordering 
all the images, except that of Christ's crucifixion, to be 
removed out of the churches ; but, according to others, 
this edict only prohibited the paying to them any kind of 
adoration or worship. This edict occasioned a civil war, 
which broke out in the islands of the Archipelago, and, by 
the suggestions of the priests and monks, ravaged a part 
of Asia, and afterwards reached Italy. The civil commo- 
tions and insurrections in Italy were chiefly promoted by 
the Roman pontiffs, Gregory I. and II. Leo was excom- 
municated ; and his subjects in the Italian provinces vio- 
lated their allegiance, and rising in arms, either massacred 
22 



254 



ICONOCL ASTES. 



or banished all the emperor's deputies and officers. In 
consequence of these proceedings, Leo assembled a council 
at Constantinople in 730, which degraded Germanus, 
bishop of that city, who was a patron of images ; and he 
ordered all the images to be publicly burnt, and inflicted a 
variety of punishments upon such as were attached to that 
idolatrous worship. Hence arose two factions, one of 
which adopted the adoration and worship of images, and 
on that account was called iconoduli or iconolatrse ; and 
the other maintained that such worship was unlawful, and 
that nothing was more worthy the zeal of Christians than 
to demolish and destroy those statues and pictures which 
were the occasion of this gross idolatry ; and hence they 
were distinguished by the titles of iconomachi (from sixwv, 
image, and fx a X w > I contend), and iconoclastee. The zeal 
of Gregory II. in favor of image worship was not only 
imitated, but even surpassed, by his successor, Gregory 
III. ; in consequence of which the Italian provinces were 
torn from the Grecian empire. Constantine, called Co- 
pronymus, in 764 convened a council at Constantinople, 
regarded by the Greeks as the seventh oecumenical coun- 
cil, which solemnly condemned the worship and usage of 
images. Those who, notwithstanding the decree of the 
council, raised commotions in the state, were severely pun- 
ished, and new laws were enacted to set bounds to the vio- 
lence of monastic rage. Leo IV., who was declared em- 
peror in 755, pursued the same measures, and had recourse 
to the coercive influence of penal laws, in order to extir- 
pate idolatry out of the Christian Church. Irene, the 
wife of Leo, poisoned her husband in 780 ; assumed the 
reins of the empire during the minority of her son Con- 
stantine ; and in 786 summoned a council at Nice, in Bi- 
thynia, known by the name of the Second Nicene Council, 
which abrogated the laws and decrees against the new idol- 



ICONOCLASTES. 



255 



atry, restored the worship of images and of the cross, and 
denounced severe punishments against those who main- 
tained that God was the only object of religious adoration. 
In this contest the Britons, Germans, and Gauls were of 
opinion that images might be lawfully continued in 
churches ; but they considered the worship of them as 
highly injurious, and offensive to the Supreme Being. 
Charlemagne distinguished himself as a mediator in this 
controversy ; he ordered four books concerning images to 
be composed, refuting the reasons urged by the Nicene 
bishops to justify the worship of images, which he sent to 
Adrian, the Roman pontiff, in 790, in order to engage him 
to withdraw his approbation of the decrees of the last 
Council of Nice. Adrian wrote an answer ; and in 794, a 
council of 300 bishops, assembled by Charlemagne at 
Erankfort-on-the-Maine, confirmed the opinion contained 
in the four books, and solemnly condemned the worship of 
images. 

In the Greek Church, after the banishment of Irene, 
the controversy concerning images broke out anew, and 
was carried on by the contending parties, during the half 
of the ninth century, with various and uncertain success. 
The Emperor Nicephorus appears, upon the whole, to have 
been an enemy to this idolatrous worship. His successor, 
Michael Curopalates, surnamed Rhangabe, patronized and 
encouraged it. But the scene changed on the accession of 
Leo, the Armenian, to the empire, who assembled a council 
at Constantinople, in 812, that abolished the decrees of 
the Nicene Council. His successor Michael, surnamed 
Balbus, disapproved of the worship of images, and his son 
Theophilus treated them with great severity. However, 
the Empress Theodora, after his death, and during the 
minority of her son, assembled a council at Constantinople 
in 842, which reinstated the decrees of the Second Nicene 



256 



ICONOCL ASTES. 



Council, and encouraged image worship by a law. The 
council held at the same place under Protius, in 879, and 
reckoned by the Greeks the eighth general council, con- 
firmed and renewed the Nicene decrees. In commemora- 
tion of this council, a festival was instituted by the super- 
stitious Greeks, called the Feast of Orthodoxy. The 
Latins were generally of opinion that images might be 
suffered, as the means of aiding the memory of the faith- 
ful, and of calling to their remembrance the pious exploits 
and virtuous actions of the persons whom they represented ; 
but they detested all thoughts of paying them the least 
marks of religious homage or adoration. The Council of 
Paris, assembled in 824 by Louis the Meek, resolved to 
allow the use of images in the churches, but severely pro- 
hibited rendering them religious worship ; nevertheless, 
towards the conclusion of this century, the Gallican clergy 
began to pay a kind of religious homage to the images of 
saints, and their example was followed by the Germans 
and other nations. However, the Iconoclastes still had 
their adherents among the Latins ; the most eminent of 
whom was Claudius, Bishop of Turin, who, in 823, ordered 
all images, and even the cross, to be cast out of the 
churches, and committed to the flames ; and he wrote a 
treatise, in which he declared both against the use and 
worship of them. He condemned relics, pilgrimages to the 
Holy Land, and all voyages to the tombs of saints ; and 
to his writings and labors it was owing that the city of 
Turin, and the adjacent country, was for a long time after 
his death much less infected with superstition than the 
other parts of Europe. The controversy concerning the 
sanctity of images was again revived by Leo, Bishop of 
Chalcedon, in the 11th century, on occasion of the Empe- 
ror Alexius's converting the figures of silver that adorned 
the portals of the churches into money, in order to supply 



WICKLIFFITES. 



257 



the exigencies of the state. The bishop obstinately main- 
tained that he had been guilty of sacrilege, and published 
a treatise, in which he affirmed that in these images there 
resided an inherent sanctity, and that the adoration of 
Christians ought not to be confined to the persons repre- 
sented by these images, but extend to the images them- 
selves. The emperor assembled a council at Constantino- 
ple, which determined that the images of Christ and of 
the saints were to be honored only with a relative wor- 
ship ; and that the invocation and worship were to be ad- 
dressed to the saints only, as the servants of Christ, and 
on account of their relation to him as their master. Leo, 
dissatisfied with these absurd and superstitious decisions, 
was sent into banishment. In the western church, the 
worship of images was disapproved, and opposed by seve- 
ral considerable parties, as the Petrobrussians, Albigenses, 
Waldenses, etc. ; till at length this idolatrous practice was 
abolished in many parts of the Christian world by the 
Reformation. 



WICKLIFFITES, 

The followers of the famous John Wickliffe, called "the 
first reformer," who was born in Yorkshire in the year 
1324. He attacked the jurisdiction of the pope and the 
bishops. He was for this summoned to a council at Lam- 
beth, to give an account of his doctrines : but being coun- 
tenanced by the duke of Lancaster, was both times dis- 
missed without condemnation. Wickliffe, therefore, con- 
tinued to spread his new principles as usual, adding to them 
doctrines still more alarming ; by which he drew after him 
22* r 



258 



WILKINSONIANS. 



a great number of disciples. Upon this, William Courtnay, 
archbishop of Canterbury, called another council in 1382, 
which condemned twenty-four propositions of Wickliffe and 
his disciples, and obtained a declaration of Richard II. 
against all who should preach them ; but while these pro- 
ceedings were agitating, Wickliffe died at Lutterworth, 
leaving many works behind him for the establishment of his 
doctrines. He was buried in his own church at Lutter- 
worth, in Leicestershire, where his bones were suffered to 
rest in peace till the year 1428, when by an order from the 
pope, they were taken up and burnt. Wickliffe was doubt- 
less a very extraordinary man, considering the times in 
which he lived. He discovered the absurdities and impo- 
sitions of the church of Rome, and had the honesty and re- 
solution to promulgate his opinions, which a little more 
support would probably have enabled him to establish ; 
they were evidently the foundation of the subsequent 
Reformation. 



WILKINSONIANS, 

The followers of Jemima Wilkinson, who was born in Cum- 
berland, R. I. In October, 1776, she asserted that she was 
taken sick, and actually died, and that her soul went to hea- 
ven, where it still continues. Soon after her body was re- 
animated with the spirit and power of Christ, upon which she 
set up as a public teacher ; and declared she had an imme- 
diate revelation for all she delivered, and was arrived to a 
state of absolute perfection. It is also said she pretended 
to foretell future events, to discern the secrets of the heart, 
and to have the power of healing diseases ; and if any per- 



WALDENSES. 



259 



son who had made application to her was not healed, she 
attributed it to his want of faith. She asserted that those 
who refused to believe these exalted things concerning her, 
will be in the state of the unbelieving Jews, who rejected 
the counsel of God against themselves ; and she told her 
hearers that was the eleventh hour, and the last call of 
mercy that ever should be granted them : for she heard an 
inquiry in heaven, saying, " Who will go and preach to a 
dying world ?" or words to that import ; and she said she 
answered, " Here am I — send me;" and that she left the 
realms of light and glory, and the company of the heavenly 
host, who are continually praising and worshipping God, 
in order to descend upon earth, and pass through many 
sufferings and trials for the happiness of mankind. She 
assumed the title of the universal friend of mankind ; hence 
her followers distinguish themselves by the name of Friends. 



WALDENSES, 

Or Valdenses, a sect of reformers, who made their first 
appearance about the year 1160. They were most nume- 
rous about the valleys of Piedmont ; and hence, some say, 
they were called Valdenses, or Vaudois, and not from Peter 
Valdo, as others suppose. Mosheim, however, gives this 
account of them : he says, that Peter, an opulent merchant 
of Lyons, surnamed Valdensis, or Validisius, from Vaux, 
or Waldum, a town in the marquisate of Lyons, being ex- 
tremely zealous for the advancement of true piety and 
Christian knowledge, employed a certain priest, called 
Stephanus de JEvisa, about the year 1160, in translating, 
from Latin into French, the four Gospels, with other books 



260 



WALDENSES. 



of holy Scripture, and the most remarkable sentences of 
the ancient doctors, which were so highly esteemed in this 
century. But no sooner had he perused these sacred books 
with a proper degree of attention, than he perceived that 
the religion which was now taught in the Roman church 
differed totally from that which was originally inculcated 
by Christ and his apostles. Struck with this glaring con- 
tradiction between the doctrines of the pontiffs and the 
truths of the Gospel, and animated with zeal, he abandoned 
his mercantile vocation, distributed his riches among the 
poor (whence the Waldenses were called poor men of Lyons) , 
and, forming an association with other pious men, who had 
adopted his sentiments and his turn of devotion, he began, 
in the year 1180, to assume the quality of a public teacher, 
and to instruct the multitude in the doctrines and precepts 
of Christianity. 

Soon after Peter had assumed the exercise of his min- 
istry, the archbishop of Lyons, and the other rulers of the 
church in that province, vigorously opposed him. How- 
ever, their opposition was unsuccessful ; for the purity and 
simplicity of that religion which these good men taught, 
the spotless innocence that shone forth in their lives and 
actions, and the noble contempt of riches and honors which 
was conspicuous in the whole of their conduct and conver- 
sation, appeared so engaging to all such as had any sense 
of true piety, that the number of their followers daily in- 
creased. They accordingly formed religious assemblies, 
first in France, and afterwards in Lombardy ; from whence 
they propagated their sect throughout the other provinces 
of Europe with incredible rapidity, and with such invinci- 
ble fortitude, that neither fire nor sword, nor the most 
cruel inventions of merciless persecution, could damp their 
zeal, or entirely ruin their cause. 

The attempts of Peter Waldus and his followers were 



WALDENSES. 



261 



neither employed nor designed to introduce new doctrines 
into the church, nor to propose new articles of faith to 
Christians. All they aimed at was, to reduce the form 
of ecclesiastical government, and the manners both of the 
clergy and people, to that amiable simplicity and primitive 
sanctity that characterized the apostolic ages, and which 
appear so strongly recommended in the precepts and in- 
junctions of the Divine Author of our holy religion. In 
consequence of this design, they complained that the Roman 
church had degenerated, under Constantine the Great, from 
its primitive purity and sanctity. They denied the supre- 
macy of the Roman pontiff, and maintained that the rulers 
and ministers of the church were obliged, by their vocation, 
to imitate the poverty of the apostles, and to procure for 
themselves a subsistence by the work of their hands. They 
considered every Christian as, in a certain measure, quali- 
fied and authorized to instruct, exhort, and confirm the 
brethren in their Christian course ; and demanded the res- 
toration of the ancient penitential discipline of the church, 
i. e., the expiation of transgressions by prayer, fasting, and 
alms, which the newly-invented doctrine of indulgences had 
almost totally abolished. They at the same time affirmed 
that every pious Christian was qualified and entitled to 
prescribe to the penitent the kind or degree of satisfaction 
or expiation that their transgressions required ; that con- 
fession made to priests was by no means necessary, since 
the humble offender might acknowledge his sins and testify 
his repentance to any true believer, and might expect from 
such the counsel and admonition which his case demanded. 
They maintained that the power of delivering sinners from 
the guilt and punishment of their offences belonged to God 
alone ; and that indulgences, of consequence, were the 
criminal inventions of sordid avarice. They looked upon 
the prayers and other ceremonies that were instituted in 



262 



WALDENSES. 



behalf of the dead, as vain, useless, and absurd, and denied 
the existence of departed souls in an intermediate state of 
purification ; affirming that they were immediately, upon 
their separation from the body, received into heaven, or 
thrust down to hell. These and other tenets of a like na- 
ture, composed the system of doctrine propagated by the 
Waldenses. It is also said that several of the Waldenses 
denied the obligation of infant baptism, and that others 
rejected water baptism entirely ; but Wall has labored to 
prove that infant baptism was generally practised among 
them. 

Their rules of practice were extremely austere ; for they 
adopted as the model of their moral discipline the sermon 
of Christ on the mount, which they interpreted and ex- 
plained in the most rigorous and literal manner ; and con- 
sequently prohibited and condemned in their society all 
wars, and suits of law, and all attempts towards the acqui- 
sition of wealth ; the inflicting of capital punishments, self- 
defence against unjust violence, and oaths of all kinds. 

During the greatest part of the seventeenth century, 
those of them who lived in the valleys of Piedmont, and 
who had embraced the doctrine, discipline, and worship of 
the church of Geneva, were oppressed and persecuted in 
the most barbarous and inhuman manner by the ministers 
of Rome. This persecution was carried on with peculiar 
marks of rage and enormity in the years 1655, 1656, and 
1696, and seemed to portend nothing less than the total 
extinction of that unhappy nation. The most horrid scenes 
of violence and bloodshed were exhibited in this theatre 
of papal tyranny ; and the few Waldenses that survived 
were indebted for their existence and support to the inter- 
cession made for them by the English and Dutch govern- 
ments, and also by the Swiss cantons, who solicited the 
clemency of the duke of Savoy on their behalf, 



GREEK CHURCH. 



263 



GREEK CHURCH. 

The Greek Church comprehends in its bosom a con- 
siderable part of Greece, the Grecian Isles, Wallachia, 
Moldavia, Egypt, Abyssinia, Nubia, Libya, Arabia, Meso- 
potamia, Syria, Cilicia, and Palestine, which are all under 
the jurisdiction of the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alex- 
andria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. If to these we add the 
whole of the Russian empire in Europe, great part of 
Siberia in Asia, Astracan, Casan, and Georgia, it will be 
evident that the Greek church has a wider extent of terri- 
tory than the Latin, with all the branches which have 
sprung from it ; and that it is with great impropriety that 
the church of Rome is called by her members the catholic 
or universal church. That in these widely distant coun- 
tries the professors of Christianity are agreed in every 
minute article of belief, it would be rash to assert ; but 
there is certainly such an agreement among them, with 
respect both to faith and to discipline, that they mutually 
hold communion with each other, and are, in fact, but one 
church. It is called the Greek church, in contradistinction 
to the Latin or Roman church ; as also the Eastern, in 
distinction from the Western church. We shall here pre- 
sent the reader with a view of its rise, tenets, and discipline. 

The Greek church is considered as a separation from 
the Latin. In the middle of the ninth century, the con- 
troversy relating to the procession of the Holy Ghost 
(which had been started in the sixth century) became a 
point of great importance, on account of the jealousy and 
ambition which were at that time blended with it. Photius, 
the patriarch of Jerusalem, having been advanced to that 
see in the room of Ignatius, whom he procured to be 



264 



GREEK CHURCH. 



deposed, was solemnly executed by pope Nicholas, in a 
council held at Rome, and his ordination declared null and 
void. The Greek emperor resented this conduct of the 
pope, who defended himself with great spirit and resolu- 
tion. Photius, in his turn, convened what he called an 
oecumenical council, in which he pronounced sentence of 
excommunication and deposition against the pope, and got 
it subscribed by twenty-one bishops and others, amounting 
in number to a thousand. This occasioned a wide breach 
between the sees of Rome and Constantinople. However, 
the death of the emperor Michael, and the deposition of 
Photius, subsequent thereupon, seemed to have restored 
peace ; for the emperor Basil held a council at Constanti- 
nople in the year 869, in which entire satisfaction was 
given to pope Adrian ; but the schism was only smothered 
and suppressed a while. The Greek church had several 
complaints against the Latin ; particularly it was thought 
a great hardship for the Greeks to subscribe to the defini- 
tion of a council according to the Roman form, prescribed 
by the pope, since it made the church of Constantinople 
dependent on that of Rome, and set the pope above an 
oecumenical council ; but, above all, the pride and haughti- 
ness of the Roman court gave the Greeks a great distaste ; 
and as their deportment seemed to insult his imperial 
majesty, it entirely alienated the affections of the emperor 
Basil. Towards the middle of the eleventh century, 
Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, opposed 
the Latins with respect to their making use of unleavened 
bread in the eucharist, their observation of the Sabbath, 
and fasting on Saturdays, charging them with living in 
communion with the Jews. To this, pope Leo IX. replied, 
and, in his apology for the Latins, declaimed very warmly 
against the false doctrine of the Greeks, interposing, 
at the same time, the authority of his see. He likewise, 



GREEK CHURCH. 



265 



by Lis legates, excommunicated the patriarch in the church 
of Santa Sophia, which gave the last shock to the recon- 
ciliation attempted a long time after, but to no purpose ; 
for from that time the hatred of the Greeks to the Latins, 
and of the Latins to the Greeks, became insuperable, inso- 
much that they have continued ever since separated from 
each other's communion. 

The following are some of the chief tenets held by the 
Greek church : — They disown the authority of the pope, 
and deny that the church of Rome is the true catholic 
church. They do not baptize their children till they are 
three, four, five, six, ten, nay, sometimes eighteen years 
of age : baptism is performed by trine immersion. They 
insist that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ought to 
be administered in both kinds, and they give the sacrament 
to children immediately after baptism. They grant no 
indulgences, nor do they lay any claim to the character 
of infallibility, like the church of Rome. They deny that 
there is any such place as purgatory ; notwithstanding 
they pray for the dead, that God would have mercy on 
them at the general judgment. They practise the invo- 
cation of saints ; though, they say, they do not invoke 
them as deities, but as intercessors with God. They 
exclude confirmation, extreme unction, and matrimony, 
out of the seven sacraments. They deny auricular con- 
fession to be a Divine precept, and say it is only a positive 
injunction of the church. They pay no religious homage 
to the eucharist. They administer the communion in both 
kinds to the laity, both in sickness and in health, though 
they have never applied themselves to their confessors ; 
because they are persuaded that a lively faith is all which 
is requisite for the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper. 
They maintain that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from 
the Father, and not from the Son. They believe in pre- 
23 



266 



GREEK CHURCH. 



destination. They admit of no images in relief or embossed 
work, but use paintings and sculptures in copper or silver. 
They approve of the marriage of priests, provided they 
enter into that state before their admission into holy 
orders. They condemn all fourth marriages. They ob- 
serve a number of holy days, and keep four fasts in the 
year more solemn than the rest, of which the fast in Lent, 
before Easter, is the chief. They believe the doctrine of 
consubstantiation, or the union of the body of Christ with 
the sacramental bread. 

Since the Greeks became subject to the Turkish yoke, 
they have sunk into the most deplorable ignorance, in 
consequence of the slavery and thraldom under which 
they groan ; and their religion is now greatly corrupted. 
It is, indeed, little better than a heap of ridiculous cere- 
monies and absurdities. The head of the Greek church is 
the patriarch of Constantinople, who is chosen by the 
neighboring archbishops and metropolitans, and confirmed 
by the emperor or grand vizier. He is a person of great 
dignity, being the head and director of the Eastern church. 
The other patriarchs are those of Jerusalem, Antioch, and 
Alexandria. Mr. Tournefort tells us that the patriarchates 
are now generally set to sale and bestowed upon those 
who are the highest bidders. The patriarchs, metropoli- 
tans, archbishops, and bishops, are always chosen from 
among the caloyers, or Greek monks. The next person 
to a bishop, among the clergy, is an archimandrite, who is 
the director of one or more convents, which are called 
mandren ; then come the abbot, the arch-priest, the priest, 
the deacon, the under-deacon, the chanter, and the lec- 
turer. The secular clergy are subject to no rules, and 
never rise higher than high-priest. The Greeks have few 
nunneries, but a great many convents of monks, who are 



MAHOMETANISM. 



267 



all priests, and (students excepted) obliged to follow some 
handicraft employment, and lead a very austere life. 

The Russians adhere to the doctrine and ceremonies of 
the Greek church, though they are now independent of 
the patriarch of Constantinople. The Russian church, 
indeed, may be reckoned the first, as to extent of empire ; 
yet there is very little of the power of vital religion among 
them. The HosJcolniki, or, as they now call themselves, 
the Starovertzi, were a sect that separated from the church 
of Russia about 1666 ; they affected extraordinary piety 
and devotion, a veneration for the letter of the Holy 
Scriptures, and would not allow a priest to administer 
baptism who had that day tasted brandy. They harbored 
many follies and superstitions, and have been greatly 
persecuted ; but, perhaps, there will be found among them 
" some that shall be counted to the Lord for a generation." 
Several settlements of German Protestants have been 
established on the Wolga. The Moravians also have done 
good in Livonia, and the adjacent isles in the Baltic under 
the Russian government. 



MAHOMETANISM 

Is the system of religion formed and propagated by Ma- 
homet, and still adhered to by his followers. It is pro- 
fessed by the Turks and Persians, by several nations 
among the Africans, and many among the East Indians. 

Mahomet was born in the reign of Anushirwan the Just, 
emperor of Persia, about the end of the sixth century of 
the Christian era. He came into the world under some 
disadvantages. His father Abd'allah was a younger son 
of Abd'almotalleb ; and dying very young, and in his 



268 



MAHOMETANISM. 



father's lifetime, left his widow and infant son in very 
mean circumstances, his whole subsistence consisting but 
of five camels and one Ethiopian she-slave. Abd'almo- 
talleb was therefore obliged to take care of his grandchild 
Mahomet ; which he not only did during his life, but at his 
death enjoined his eldest son Abu Taleb, who was brother 
to Abd'allah by the same mother, to provide for him for 
the future ; which he very affectionately did, and instructed 
him in the business of a merchant, which he followed : and 
to that end he took him into Syria when he was but thir- 
teen. He afterwards recommended him to Khadijah, a 
noble and rich widow, for her factor ; in whose service he 
behaved himself so well, that, by making him her husband, 
she soon raised him to an equality with the richest in 
Mecca. 

After he began by this advantageous match to live at 
his ease, it was, that he formed the scheme of establishing 
a new religion, or, as he expressed it, of replanting the 
only true and ancient one, professed by Adam, Noah, 
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets, by destroy- 
ing the gross idolatry into which the generality of his 
countrymen had fallen, and weeding out the corruptions 
and superstitions which the latter Jews and Christians had, 
as he thought, introduced into their religion, and reducing 
it to its original purity, which consisted chiefly in the wor- 
ship of one God. 

Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged 
that it was necessary for him to begin with the conversion 
of his own household. Having therefore retired with his 
family, as he had done several times before, to a cave in 
Mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission to 
his wife Khadijah ; and acquainted her that the angel 
Gabriel had just before appeared to him, and told him that 
he was appointed the apostle of God : he also repeated to 



MAHOMETANISM. 



269 



her a passage which he pretended had been revealed to 
him by the ministry of the angel, with those other circum- 
stances of this first appearance which are related by the 
Mahometan writers. Khadijah received the news with 
great joy, swearing by Him in whose hands her soul was, 
that she trusted he would be the prophet of his nation ; 
and immediately communicated what she had heard to her 
cousin Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being a Christian, 
could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably 
well versed in the Scriptures ; and he readily came into 
her opinion, assuring her that the same angel who had 
formerly appeared unto Moses, was now sent to Mahomet. 
The first overture the prophet made was in the month of 
Ramadan, in the fortieth year of his age, which is there- 
fore usually called the year of his mission. 

Encouraged by so good a beginning, he resolved to pro- 
ceed, and try for some time what he could do by private 
persuasion, not daring to hazard the whole affair by expo • 
sing it too suddenly to the public. He soon made prose- 
lytes of those under his own roof, viz. his wife Khadijah, 
his servant Zeid Ebn Haretha, to whom he gave his free- 
dom on that occasion (which afterwards became a rule to 
his followers), and his cousin and pupil Ali, the son of Abu 
Taleb, though then very young ; but this last, making no 
account of the other two, used to style himself the first of 
believers. The next person Mahomet applied to was 
Abd'allah Ebn Abi Kohafa, surnamed Abu Beer, a man 
of great authority among the Koreish, and one whose inte- 
rest he well knew would be of great service to him, as it 
soon appeared ; for Abu Beer being gained over, prevailed 
also on Othman Ebn Affan, Abd'alraham Ebn Awf, Saad 
Ebn Abbi Wakkus, At Zobeir al Awam, and Telha Ebn 
Obeidalla, all principal men of Mecca, to follow his exam- 
ple. These men were six chief companions, who, with a 
23* 



270 



MAHOMETANISM. 



few more, were converted in the space of three years ; at 
the end of which, Mahomet having, as he hoped, a suffi- 
cient interest to support him, made his mission no longer 
a secret, but gave out that God had commanded him to 
admonish his near relations ; and in order to do it with 
more convenience and prospect of success, he directed AH 
to prepare an entertainment, and invited the sons and de- 
scendants of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his 
mind to them. This was done, and about forty of them 
came ; but Abu Laheb, one of his uncles, making the com- 
pany break up before Mahomet had an opportunity of 
speaking, obliged him to give them a second invitation the 
next day ; and when they were come, he made them the 
following speech : " I know no man in all Arabia who can 
offer his kindred a more excellent thing than I now do to 
you : I offer you happiness, both in this life, and in that 
which is to come : God Almighty hath commanded me to 
call you unto him. Who, therefore, among you, will be 
assistant to me herein, and become my brother and my 
vicegerent ?" All of them hesitating and declining the 
matter, Ali at length rose up, and declared that he would 
be his assistant, and vehemently threatened those who 
should oppose him. Mahomet upon this embraced Ali 
with great demonstrations of affection, and desired all who 
were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy; at 
which the company broke out into a great laughter, telling 
Abu Taleb that he must now pay obedience to his son. 

This repulse, however, was so far from discouraging 
Mahomet, that he began to preach in public to the people, 
who heard him with some patience, till he came to upbraid 
them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness of 
themselves and their fathers, which so highly provoked 
them, that they declared themselves his enemies, and 
would soon have procured his ruin, had he not been pro- 



MAHOMETANISM. 



271 



tected by Abu Taleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly 
solicited this person to desert his nephew, making frequent 
remonstrances against the innovations he was attempting ; 
which proving ineffectual, they at length threatened him 
with an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mahomet to 
desist. At this Abu Taleb was so far moved that he 
earnestly dissuaded his nephew from pursuing the affair 
any further, representing the great danger that he and his 
friends must otherwise run. But Mahomet was not to be 
intimidated ; telling his uncle plainly, that if they set the 
sun against him on his right hand, and the moon on his 
left, he would not leave his enterprise ; and Abu Taleb, 
seeing him so firmly resolved to proceed, used no further 
arguments, but promised to stand by him against all his 
enemies. 

The Koreish, finding they could prevail neither by fair 
words nor menaces, tried what they could do by force and 
ill treatment ; using Mahomet's followers so very injuri- 
ously, that it was not safe for them to continue at Mecca 
any longer ; whereupon Mahomet gave leave to such of 
them as had no friends to protect them to seek for refuge 
elsewhere. And accordingly, in the fifth year of the pro- 
phet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were women, 
fled into Ethiopia ; and among them Othman Ebn Affan, 
and his wife Rakiah, Mahomet's daughter. This was the 
first flight ; but afterwards several others followed them, 
retiring one after another, to the number of eighty- three 
men and eighteen women, besides children. These refu- 
gees were kindly received by the ISTajashi, or king of Ethio- 
pia, who refused to deliver them up to those whom the 
Koreish sent to demand them, and, as the Arab writers 
unanimously attest, even professsed the Mahometan reli- 
gion. 

In the sixth year of his mission, Mahomet had the plea- 



272 



MAHOMETANISM. 



sure of seeing his party strengthened by the conversion of 
his uncle Hamza, a man of great valor and merit ; and of 
Omar Ebn al Kattab, a person highly esteemed, and once 
a violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution gene- 
rally advances rather than obstructs the spreading of a 
religion, Islamism made so great a progress among the 
Arab tribes, that the Koreish, to suppress it effectually, if 
possible, in the seventh year of Mahomet's mission, made 
a solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites and 
the family of Abd'almotalleb, engaging themselves to con- 
tract no marriage with any of them, and to have no com- 
munication with them ; and to give it the greater sanction, 
reduced it to writing, and laid it up in the Caaba. Upon 
this, the tribe became divided into two factions ; and the 
family of Hashem all repaired to Abu Taleb, as their head ; 
except only Abd'al Uzza, surnamed the Abu Laheb, who, 
out of inveterate hatred to his nephew and his doctrine, 
went over to the opposite party, whose chief was Abu 
Sosian Ebn Harb, of the family of Ommeya. 

The families continued thus at variance for three years ; 
but in the tenth year of his mission, Mahomet told his 
uncle Abu Taleb, that God had manifestly showed his dis- 
approbation of the league which the Koreish had made 
against them, by sending a worm to eat out every word of 
the instrument except the name of God. Of this accident 
Mahomet had probably some private notice ; for Abu 
Taleb went immediately to the Koreish, and acquainted 
them with it ; offering, if it proved false, to deliver his 
nephew up to them ; but, in case it were true, he insisted 
that they ought to lay aside their animosity, and annul 
the league they had made against the Hashemites. To 
this they acquiesced ; and going to inspect the writing, to 
their great astonishment found it to be as Abu Taleb had 
said ; and the league was thereupon declared void. 



MAHOMETAN ISM. 



273 



In the same year Abu Taleb died at the age of above 
fourscore, and it is the general opinion that he died an 
infidel ; though others say that, when he was at the point 
of death he embraced Mahometanism, and produce some 
passages out of his poetical compositions to confirm their 
assertion. About a month, or, as some write, three days, 
after the death of this great benefactor and patron, Ma- 
homet had the additional mortification to lose his wife 
Khadijah, who had so generously made his fortune. For 
which reason this year is called the year of mourning. 

On the death of these two persons, the Koreish began 
to be more troublesome than ever to their prophet, and 
especially some who had formerly been his intimate friends ; 
insomuch that he found himself obliged to seek for shelter 
elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tayef, about sixty miles 
east from Mecca, for the place of his retreat. Thither, 
therefore, he went, accompanied by his servant Zeid, and 
applied himself to two of the chief of the tribe of Thakif, 
who were the inhabitants of that place ; but they received 
him very coldly. However, he stayed there a month ; and 
some of the more considerate and better sort of men 
treated him with a little respect ; but the slaves and inferior 
people at length rose against him ; and bringing him to 
the wall of the city, obliged him to depart and return to 
Mecca, where he put himself under the protection of Al 
Motaam Ebn Ali. 

This repulse greatly discouraged his followers. How- 
ever, Mahomet was not wanting to himself, but boldly con- 
tinued to preach to the public assemblies at the pilgrimage, 
and gained several proselytes ; and, among them, six of 
the inhabitants of Yathreb, of the Jewish tribe of Khazraj ; 
who, on their return home, failed not to speak much in 
recommendation of their new religion, and exhorted their 
fellow-citizens to embrace the same. 

s 



274 



MAHOMETANISM. 



In the twelfth year of his mission it was that Mahomet 
gave out that he had made his night journey from Mecca 
to Jerusalem, and thence to heaven, so much spoken of by 
all that write of him. Dr. Prideaux thinks he invented it 
either to answer the expectations of those who demanded 
some miracle as a proof of his mission ; or else, by pre- 
tending to have conversed with God, to establish the 
authority of whatever he should think fit to leave behind 
by way of oral tradition, and make his sayings to serve 
the same purpose as the oral law of the Jews. But it does 
not appear that Mahomet himself ever expected so great 
a regard should be paid to his sayings as his followers have 
since done ; and seeing he all along disclaimed any power 
of performing miracles, it seems rather to have been a 
fetch of policy to raise his reputation, by pretending to 
have actually conversed with God in heaven, as Moses 
had heretofore done in the mount, and to have received 
several institutions immediately from him, whereas, before, 
he contented himself with persuading them that he had 
all by the ministry of Gabriel. 

However, this story seemed so absurd and incredible, 
that several of his followers left him upon it ; and had 
probably ruined the whole design, had not Abu Beer 
vouched for his veracity, and declared that if Mahomet 
affirmed it to be true, he verily believed the whole. Which 
happy incident not only retrieved the prophet's credit, but 
increased it to such a degree, that he was secure of being 
able to make his disciples swallow whatever he pleased to 
impose on them for the future. And this fiction, notwith- 
standing its extravagance, was one of the most artful con- 
trivances Mahomet ever put in practice, and what chiefly 
contributed to the raising of his reputation to that great 
height to which it afterwards arrived. 

In this year, called by the Mahometans the accepted 



MAHOMETANISM. 275 

year, twelve men of Yathreb or Medina, of whom ten were 
of the tribe of Khazraj, and the other two of that of Aws, 
came to Mecca, and took an oath of fidelity to Mahomet 
at Al Akaba, a hill on the north of that city. This oath 
was called the woman's oath; not that any women were 
present at this time, but because a man was not thereby 
obliged to take up arms in defence of Mahomet or his 
religion ; it being the same oath that was afterwards 
exacted of the women, the form of which we have in the 
Koran, and is to this effect, viz. : That they should re- 
nounce all idolatry ; and that they should not steal, nor 
commit fornication, nor kill their children (as the pagan 
Arabs used to do when they apprehended they should not 
be able to maintain them), nor forge calumnies ; and that 
they should obey the prophet in all things that were 
reasonable. When they had solemnly engaged to all this, 
Mahomet sent one of his disciples named Masab Ebn 
Omair home with them, to instruct them more fully in 
the grounds and ceremonies of his new religion. 

Masab, being arrived at Medina, by the assistance of 
those who had been formerly converted, gained several pro- 
selytes, particularly Osed Ebn Hodeira, a chief man of the 
city, and Saad Ebn Moadh, prince of the tribe of the Aws ; 
Mahometanism spreading so fast, that there was scarce a 
house wherein there were not some who had embraced it. 

The next year, being the thirteenth of Mahomet's mis- 
sion, Masab returned to Mecca, accompanied by seventy- 
three men and two women of Medina who had professed 
Islamism, besides some others who were as yet unbelievers. 
On their arrival they immediately sent to Mahomet, and 
offered him their assistance, of which he was now in great 
need ; for his adversaries were by this time grown so pow- 
erful in Mecca, that he could not stay there much longer 
without imminent danger. Wherefore he accepted their 



276 



MAHOMETAN IS M . 



proposal, and met them one night, by appointment, at Al 
Akaba above mentioned, attended by his uncle Al Abbas ; 
who, though he was not then a believer, wished his nephew 
well, and made a speech to those of Medina ; wherein he 
told them that, as Mahomet was obliged to quit his native 
city and seek an asylum elsewhere, and they had offered 
him their protection, they would do well not to deceive him : 
that if they were not firmly resolved to defend, and not 
betray him, they had better declare their minds, and let 
him provide for his safety in some other manner. Upon 
their protesting their sincerity, Mahomet swore to be faith- 
ful to them, on condition that they should protect him 
against all insults as heartily as they would their own wives 
and families. They then asked him what recompense they 
were to expect, if they should happen to be killed in his 
quarrel? He answered, Paradise. Whereupon they pledged 
their faith to him, and so returned home after Mahomet 
had chosen twelve out of their number, who were to have 
the same authority among them as the twelve apostles of 
Christ had among his disciples. 

Hitherto Mahomet had propagated his religion by fair 
means ; so that the whole success of his enterprise before 
his flight to Medina must be attributed to persuasion only, 
and not to compulsion. For before this second oath of 
fealty or inauguration at Al Akaba, he had no permission 
to use any force at all ; and in several places of the Koran, 
which he pretended were revealed during his stay at Mecca, 
he declares his business was only to preach and admonish; 
that he had .no authority to compel any person to embrace 
his religion ; and that, whether people believe or not, was 
none of his concern, but belonged solely unto God. And 
he was so far from allowing his followers to use force, that 
he exhorted them to bear patiently those injuries which 
were offered them on account of their faith; and, when 



MAHOMETANISM. 



277 



persecuted himself, he chose rather to quit the place of his 
birth, and retire to Medina, than to make any resistance. 
But • this great passiveness and moderation seem entirely 
owing to his want of power, and the great superiority of 
his opposers, for the first twelve years of his mission ; for 
no sooner was he enabled, by the assistance of those of Me- 
dina, to make head against his enemies, than he gave out, 
that God had allowed him and his followers to defend them- 
selves against the infidels ; and at length, as his forces 
increased, he pretended to have the divine leave even to 
attack them, and destroy idolatry, and set up the true faith 
by the sword ; finding by experience, that his designs would 
otherwise proceed very slowly, if they were not utterly 
overthrown ; and knowing, on the other hand, that innova- 
tors, when they depend solely on their own strength, and can 
compel, seldom run any risk ; from whence, says Machiavel, 
it follows that all the armed prophets have succeeded, and 
the unarmed ones have failed. Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, 
and Romulus, would not have been able to establish the 
observance of their institution for any length of time, had 
they not been armed. The first passage of the Koran which 
gave Mahomet the permission of defending himself by arms, 
is said to have been that in the twenty-second chapter ; 
after which, a great number to the same purpose were 
revealed. 

Mahomet, having provided for the security of his com- 
panions, as well as his own, by the league offensive and 
defensive which he had now concluded with those of Me- 
dina, directed them to repair thither, which they accord- 
ingly did ; but himself, with Abu Beer and Ali, staid be- 
hind, having not yet received the divine permission, as he 
pretended, to leave Mecca. The Koreish, fearing the con- 
sequence of this new alliance, began to think it absolutely 
necessary to prevent Mahomet's escape to Medina ; and 
24 



278 



MAHOMET ANISM. 



having held a council thereon, after several milder expe- 
dients had been rejected, they came to a resolution that he 
should be killed ; and agreed that a man should be chosen 
out of every tribe for the execution of this design ; and that 
each man should have a blow at him with his sword, that 
the guilt of his blood might fall equally on all the tribes, to 
whose united power the Hashemites were much inferior, 
and therefore durst not attempt to revenge their kinsman's 
death. 

This conspiracy was scarce formed, when, by some means 
or other, it came to Mahomet's knowledge, and he gave 
out that it was revealed to him by the angel Gabriel, who 
had now ordered him to retire to Medina. Whereupon, to 
amuse his enemies, he directed Ali to lie down in his place, 
and wrap himself up in his green cloak, which he did ; and 
Mahomet escaped miraculously, as they pretended, to Abu 
Beer's house, unperceived by the conspirators, who had 
already assembled at the prophet's door. They, in the 
meantime, looking through the crevice, and seeing Ali, 
whom they took to be Mahomet himself, asleep, continued 
watching there till morning, when Ali arose, and they found 
themselves deceived. 

From Abu Beer's house Mahomet and he went to a cave 
in mount Thur, to the southeast of Mecca, accompanied 
only by Amor Ebn Foheirah, Abu Beer's servant, and 
Abd'allah Ebn Oreitah, an idolater whom they had hired 
for a guide. In this cave they lay hid three days, to avoid 
the search of their enemies ; which they very narrowly 
escaped, and not without the assistance of more miracles 
than one ; for some say that the Koreish were struck with 
blindness, so that they could not find the cave ; others, 
that after Mahomet and his companions were got in, two 
pigeons laid their eggs at the entrance, and a spider covered 



MAHOMETAN ISM. 



279 



the mouth of the cave with her web, which made them look 
no further. Abu Beer, seeing the prophet in such immi- 
nent danger, became very sorrowful ; whereupon Mahomet 
comforted him with these words, recorded in the Koran : 
Be not grieved, for God is with us. Their enemies being 
retired, they left the cave, and set out for Medina by a 
by-road ; and having fortunately, or, as the Mahometans 
tell us, miraculously, escaped some who were sent to pur- 
sue them, arrived safely at that city; whither Ali fol- 
lowed them in three days, after he had settled some affairs 
at Mecca. 

Mahomet being securely settled at Medina, and able not 
only to defend himself against the insults of his enemies, 
but to attack them, began to send out small parties to make 
reprisals on the Koreish ; the first party consisting of no 
more than nine men, who intercepted and plundered a 
caravan belonging to that tribe, and in the action took two 
prisoners. But what established his affairs very much, and 
was the foundation on which he built all his succeeding 
greatness, was the gaining of the battle of Bedr, which was 
fought in the second year of the Hegira, and is so famous 
in the Mahometan history. Some reckon no less than 
twenty-seven expeditions, wherein Mahomet was personally 
present, in nine of which he gave battle, besides several 
other expeditions in which he was not present. His forces 
he maintained partly by the contributions of his followers 
for this purpose, which he called by the name of zacat, or 
alms, and the paying of which he very artfully made one 
main article of his religion : and partly by ordering a fifth 
part of the plunder to be brought into the public treasury 
for that purpose, in which matter he likewise pretended to 
act by the divine direction. 

In a few years', by the success of his arms, notwithstand- 
ing he sometimes came off with the worst, he considerably 



280 



MAHOMETAN ISM. 



raised his credit and power. In the sixth year of the He- 
gira he set out with 1400 men to visit the temple of Mecca, 
not with any intent of committing hostilities, hut in a peace- 
able manner. However, when he came to Al Hodeibiya, 
which is situated partly within and partly without the sa- 
cred territory, the Koreish sent to let him know that they 
would not permit him to enter Mecca, unless he forced his 
way : whereupon he called his troops about him, and they 
all took a solemn oath of fealty or homage to him, and he 
resolved to attack the city ; but those of Mecca sending 
Arwa Ebn Masun, prince of the tribe of Thakif, as their 
ambassador, to desire peace, a truce was concluded between 
them for ten years, by which any person was allowed to 
enter into a league either with Mahomet, or with the Koreish, 
as he thought fit. 

In the seventh year of the Hegira, Mahomet began to 
think of propagating his religion beyond the bounds of 
Arabia, and sent messengers to the neighboring princes, 
with letters to invite them to Mahometanism. Nor was 
this project without some success : Khosru Parviz, then 
king of Persia, received his letter with great disdain, and 
tore it in a passion, sending away the messenger very 
abruptly ; which, when Mahomet heard, he said, Grod shall 
tear his kingdom. And soon after a messenger came to 
Mahomet from Badhan, king of Yaman, who was a depen- 
dent on the Persians, to acquaint him that he had received 
orders to send him to Khosru. Mahomet put off his an- 
swer till the next morning, and then told the messenger it 
had been revealed to him that night that Khosru was slain 
by his son Shiruyeh : adding, that he was well assured his 
new religion and empire should rise to as great a height as 
that of Khosru : and therefore bid him advise his master 
to embrace Mahometanism. The messenger being returned, 
Badhan in a few days received a letter from Shiruyeh, in- 



MAHOMETANISM. 



281 



forming him of his father's death, and ordering him to give 
the prophet no further disturbance. Whereupon Badhan, 
and the Persians with him, turned Mahometans. 

The emperor Heraclius, as the Arabian historians assure 
us, received Mahomet's letter with great respect, laying it 
on his pillow, and dismissed the bearer honorably. And 
some pretend that he would have professed this new faith, 
had he not been afraid of losing his crown. 

Mahomet wrote to the same effect to the king of Ethio- 
pia, though he had been converted before, according to the 
Arab writers; and to Mokawkas, governor of Egypt, who 
gave the messenger a very favorable reception, and sent 
several valuable presents to Mahomet, and among the rest 
two girls, one of whom, named Mary, became a great favo- 
rite with him. He also sent letters of the like purport to 
several Arab princes ; particularly one to Al Hareth Ebn 
Abi Shamer, king of Ghassan, who, returning for answer 
that he would go to Mahomet himself, the prophet said, 
May his kingdom perish ! Another to Hawdha Ebn Ali, 
king of Yamama, who was a Christian, and, having some 
time before professed Islamism, had lately returned to his 
former faith : this prince sent back a very rough answer, 
upon which Mahomet cursing him, he died soon after ; and 
a third to Al Mondar Ebn Sawa, king of Bahrein, who 
embraced Mahometanism, and all the Arabs of that country 
followed his example. 

The eighth year of the Hegira was a very fortunate 
year to Mahomet. In the beginning of it Khaled Ebn al 
Walid and Amru Ebn al As, both excellent soldiers, the 
first of whom afterwards conquered Syria and other coun- 
tries, and the latter Egypt, became proselytes to Mahome- 
tanism. And soon after the prophet sent 3000 men against 
the Grecian forces, to revenge the death of one of his am- 
bassadors, who, being sent to the governor of Bosra on the 
24* 



282 



MAIIOMETANISM. 



same errand as those who went to the above-mentioned 
princes, was slain by an Arab of the tribe of Ghassan, at 
Muta, a town in the territory of Balka, in Syria, about 
three days' journey eastward from Jerusalem, near which 
town they encountered. The Grecian's being vastly supe- 
rior in number (for, including the auxiliary Arabs, they 
had an army of 100,000 men), the Mahometans were re- 
pulsed in the first attack, and lost successively three of 
their generals, viz., Zeid Ebn Haretha, Mahomet's freed- 
man ; Jassar, the son of Abu Taleb ; and Abdalia Ebn 
Rawalia : but Khaled Ebn al Walid, succeeding to the 
command, overthrew the Greeks with great slaughter, and 
brought away abundance of rich spoil : on occasion of which 
action Mahomet gave him the title of Seif min soy uf Allah, 
" one of the swords of God." 

In this year also Mahomet took the city of Mecca, the 
inhabitants whereof had broken the truce concluded on two 
years before ; for the tribe of Beer, who were confederates 
with the Koreish, attacking those of Kozaah, who were 
allies of Mahomet, killed several of them, being supported 
in the action by a party of the Koreish themselves. The 
consequence of this violation was soon apprehended, and 
Abu Sosian himself made a journey to Medina on purpose 
to heal the breach and renew the truce, but in vain ; for 
Mahomet, glad of this opportunity, refused to see him ; 
whereupon he applied to Abu Beer and Ali ; but they 
giving him no answer, he was obliged to return to Mecca 
as he came. 

Mahomet immediately gave orders for preparations to 
be made that he might surprise the Meccans while they 
were unprovided to receive him : in a little time he began 
his march thither ; and by the time he came near the city, 
his forces were increased to ten thousand men. Those of 
Mecca not being in a condition to defend themselves against 



MAHOMETAN! SM. 



283 



so formidable an army, surrendered at discretion, and Abu 
Sosian saved his life by turning Mahometan. About 
twenty-eight of the idolaters were killed by a party under 
the command of Khaled ; but this happened contrary to 
Mahomet's orders, who, when he entered the town, par- 
doned all the Koreish on their submission, except only six 
men and four women, who were more obnoxious than ordi- 
nary (some of them having apostatized), and were solemnly 
proscribed by the prophet himself; but of these no more 
than one man and one woman were put to death, the rest 
obtaining pardon on their embracing Mahometanism, and 
one of the women making her escape. 

The remainder of this year Mahomet employed in de- 
stroying the idols in and around Mecca, sending several 
of the generals on expeditions for that purpose, and to 
invite the Arabs to Islamism ; wherein it is no wonder if 
they now met with success. 

The next year, being the ninth of the Hegira, the Ma- 
hometans call the year of embassies ; for the Arabs had 
been hitherto expecting the issue of the war between Ma- 
homet and the Koreish ; but as soon as that tribe, the 
principal of the whole nation, and the genuine descendants 
of Ishmael, whose prerogatives none offered to dispute, 
had submitted, they were satisfied that it was not in their 
power to oppose Mahomet ; and therefore began to come 
in to him in great numbers, and to send embassies to make 
their submissions to him, both to Mecca, while he staid 
there, and also to Medina, whither he returned this year. 
Among the rest, five kings of the tribe of Hamyar pro- 
fessed Mahometanism, and sent ambassadors to notify the 
same. 

In the tenth year Ali was sent into Yaman to propagate 
the Mahometan faith there ; and, as it is said, converted 
the whole tribe of Hamdan in one day. Their example 



284 



MAHOMETAN ISM. 



was quickly followed by all the inhabitants of that pro- 
vince, except only those of Najran, who, being Christians, 
chose rather to pay tribute. 

Thus was Mahometanism established, and idolatry rooted 
out, even in Mahomet's lifetime (for he died the next year), 
throughout all Arabia, except only Yamama, where Mo- 
seilamn, who set up also as a prophet, as Mahomet's com- 
petitor, had a great party, and was not reduced till the 
kalifat of Abu Beer ; and the Arabs being then united in 
one faith, and under one prince, found themselves in a 
condition of making those conquests which extended the 
Mahometan faith over so great a part of the world. 

1. Tenets of the Mahometans. — The Mahometans divide 
their religion into two general parts, faith and practice ; 
of which the first is divided into six distinct branches : 
Belief in God, in his angels, in his Scriptures, in his pro- 
phets, in the resurrection and final judgment, and in God's 
absolute decrees. The points relating to practice are 
prayer, with washings, etc., alms, fasting, pilgrimage to 
Mecca, and circumcision. 

Of the Mahometan Faith. — 1. That both Mahomet, and 
those among his followers who are reckoned orthodox, had 
and continue to have just and true notions of God and his 
attributes, appears so plain from the Koran itself, and all 
the Mahometan divines, that it would be loss of time to 
refute those who suppose the God of Mahomet to be differ- 
ent from the true God, and only a fictitious deity or idol 
of his own creation. 

2. The existence of angels and their purity, are abso- 
lutely required to be believed in the Koran ; and he is 
reckoned an infidel who denies there are such beings, or 
hates any of them, or asserts any distinction of sexes 
among them. They believe them to have pure and subtle 
bodies, created of fire ; that they neither eat nor drink, 



MAHOMETANISM. 



285 



nor propagate their species ; that they have various forms 
and offices, some adoring God in different postures, others 
singing praises to him, or interceding for mankind. They 
hold that some of them are employed in writing down the 
actions of men ; others in carrying the throne of God, 
and other services. 

•3. As to the Scriptures, the Mahometans are taught by 
the Koran that God, in divers ages of the world, gave 
revelations of his will in writing to several prophets, the 
whole and every one of which it is absolutely necessary 
for a good Moslem to believe. The number of these sacred 
books were, according to them, one hundred and four ; of 
which ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to 
Edris or Enoch, ten to Abraham ; and the other four, 
being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the 
Koran, were successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, 
and Mahomet ; which last being the seal of the prophets, 
those revelations are now closed, and no more are to be 
expected. All these divine books, except the four last, 
they agree to be now entirely lost, and their contents un- 
known ; though the Sabians have several books which they 
attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. And of 
those four, the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, they say, 
have undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that 
though there may possibly be some part of the true word 
of God therein, yet no credit is to be given to the present 
copies in the hands of the Jews and Christians. 

4. The number of the prophets which have been from 
time to time sent by God into the world, amounts to no 
less than 224,000, according to one Mahometan tradition, 
or to 124,000, according to another; among whom 313 
were apostles, sent with special commissions to reclaim 
mankind from infidelity and superstition ; and six of them 
brought new laws or dispensations, which successively ab- 



286 



MAHOMETANISM. 



rogated the preceding ; these were Adam, Noah, Abra- 
ham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet. All the prophets in 
general the Mahometans believe to have been free from 
great sins and errors of consequence, and professors of 
one and the same religion — that is, Islamism — notwith- 
standing the different laws and institutions which they 
observed. They allow of degrees among them, and hold 
some of them to be more excellent and honorable than 
others. The first place they give to the revealers and 
establishes of new dispensations, and the next to the 
apostles. 

In this great number of prophets they not only reckon 
divers patriarchs and persons named in Scripture, but not 
recorded to have been prophets (wherein the Jewish and 
Christian writers have sometimes led the way), as Adam, 
Seth, Lot, Ishmael, Nun, Joshua, etc., and introduce some 
of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and 
Jethro, who are called in the Koran JEdris, Hud, and 
Shoaib ; but several others whose very names do not ap- 
pear in Scripture (though they endeavor to find some per- 
sons there to fix them on), as Saleh, Khedr, Dhu'lkefl, etc. 

5. The belief of a general resurrection and a future 
judgment. 

The time of the resurrection the Mahometans allow to 
be a perfect secret to all but God alone ; the angel Gabriel 
himself acknowledging his ignorance on this point, when 
Mahomet asked him about it. However, they say the ap- 
proach of that day may be known from certain signs 
which are to precede it. 

After examination is past (the account of which is too 
long and tedious for this place), and every one's works 
weighed in a just balance, they say that mutual retaliation 
will follow, according to which every creature will take 
vengeance one of another, or have satisfaction made them 



MAHOMETANISM. 



28T 



for the injuries which they have suffered. And, since there 
will then be no other way of returning like for like, the 
manner of giving this satisfaction will be by taking away 
a proportional part of the good works of him who offered 
the injury, and adding it to those of him who suffered it. 
Which being done, if the angels (by whose ministry this is 
to be performed) say, Lord, ive have given to every one his 
due, and there remaineth of this person s good works so 
much as equalleth the weight of an ant, God will, of his 
mercy, cause it to be doubled unto him, that he may be 
admitted into Paradise ; but if, on the contrary, his good 
works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and 
there be any who have not yet received satisfaction from 
him, God will order that an equal weight of their sins be 
added unto his, that he may be punished for them in their 
stead, and he will be sent to hell laden with both. This 
will be the method of God's dealing with mankind. As to 
brutes, after they shall have likewise taken vengeance of 
one another, he will command them to be changed into 
dust; wicked men being reserved to more grievous punish- 
ment, so that they snail cry out, on hearing this sentence 
passed on the brutes, Would to God that we were dust 
also ! As to the genii, many Mahometans are of opinion 
that such of them as are true believers, will undergo the 
same fate as the irrational animals, and have no other re- 
ward than the favor of being converted into dust; and for 
this they quote the authority of their prophet. 

The trials being over, and the assembly dissolved, the 
Mahometans hold that those who are to be admitted into 
Paradise will take the right hand way, and those who are 
destined into hell fire will take the left ; but both of them 
must first pass the bridge called in Arabic Al Sirat, which, 
they say, is laid over the midst of hell, and describe to be 
finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword ; 



288 



MAHOMETANISM. 



so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one 
shall be able to stand upon it ; for which reason most of 
the sect of the Motazalites reject it as a fable ; though the 
orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of this 
article, that it was seriously affirmed by him who never 
asserted a falsehood, meaning their prophet ; who, to add 
to the difficulty of the passage, has likewise declared that 
this bridge is beset on each side with briers and hooked 
thorns, which will, however, be no impediment to the good; 
for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like 
lightning, or the wind, Mahomet and his Moslems leading 
the way ; whereas the wicked, what with the slipperiness 
and extreme narrowness of the path, the entangling of the 
thorns, and the extinction of the light which directed the 
former to Paradise, will soon miss their footing, and fall 
down headlong into hell, which is gaping beneath them. 

As to the punishment of the wicked, the Mahometans 
are taught that hell is divided into seven stories or apart- 
ments, one below another, designed for the reception of as 
many distinct classes of the damned. 

The first, which they call Jehenan, they say will be the 
receptacle of those who acknowledged one God, that is, 
the wicked Mahometans ; who, after having been punished 
according to their demerits, will at length be released; 
the second, named Ladka, they assign to the Jews ; the 
third, named Al Hotama, to the Christians ; the fourth, 
named Al Sair, to the Sabians ; the fifth, named Salcar, 
to the Magians; the sixth, named Al Jahin, to the idola- 
ters ; and the seventh, which is the lowest and worst of 
all, and is called Al Hawyat, to the hypocrites, or those 
who outwardly professed some religion, but in their hearts 
were of none. Over each of these apartments they be- 
lieve there will be set a guard of angels, nineteen in num- 
ber, to whom the damned will confess the just judgment 



MAHOMBTANISM. 



289 



of God, and beg them to intercede with him for some alle- 
viation of their pain, or that they may be delivered by 
being annihilated. 

Mahomet has, in his Koran and traditions, been very 
exact in describing the various torments of hell, which, 
according to him, the wicked will suffer, both from intense 
heat and excessive cold. We shall, however, enter into 
no detail of them here, but only observe that the degrees 
of these pains will also vary in proportion to the crimes 
of the sufferer, and the apartment he is condemned to ; 
and that he who is punished the most lightly of all will be 
shod with shoes of fire, the fervor of which will cause his 
skull to boil like a cauldron. The condition of these un- 
happy wretches, as the same prophet teaches, cannot be 
properly called either life or death ; and their misery will 
be greatly increased by their despair of being ever deli- 
vered from that place, since, according to that frequent 
expression in the Koran, they must remain therein forever. 
It must be remarked, however, that the infidels alone will 
be liable to eternity of damnation ; for the Moslems, or 
those who have embraced the true religion, and have been 
guilty of heinous sins, will be delivered thence after they 
shall have expiated their crimes by their sufferings. The 
time which these believers shall be detained there, accord- 
ing to a tradition handed down from their prophet, will not 
be less than nine hundred years, nor more than seven 
thousand. And, as to the manner of their delivery, they 
say that they shall be distinguished by the marks of pros- 
tration on those parts of their bodies with which they used 
to touch the ground in prayer, and over which the fire will 
therefore have no power ; and that being known by this 
characteristic, they will be released by the mercy of God, 
at the intercession of Mahomet and the blessed ; where- 
upon those who shall have been dead will be restored to 
25 T 



290 



MAHOMETANISM. 



life, as has been said ; and those whose bodies shall have 
contracted any sootiness or filth from the flames and smoke 
of hell, will be immersed in one of the rivers of Paradise, 
called the River of Life, which will wash them whiter 
than pearls. 

The righteous, as the Mahometans are taught to believe, 
having surmounted the difficulties, and passed the sharp 
bridge above mentioned, before they enter Paradise, will 
be refreshed by drinking at the pond of their prophet, 
who describes it to be an exact square, of a month's jour- 
ney in compass ; its water, which is supplied by two pipes 
from Al Cawtliay, one of the rivers of Paradise, being 
whiter than milk or silver, and more odoriferous than 
musk, with as many cups set around it as there are stars 
in -the firmament; of which water, whoever drinks will 
thirst no more forever. This is the first taste which the 
blessed will have of their future and now near-approaching 
felicity. 

Though Paradise be so very frequently mentioned in 
the Koran, yet it is a dispute among the Mahometans, 
whether it be already created, or to be created hereafter ; 
the Motazalites and some other sectaries asserting, that 
there is not at present any such place in nature, and that 
the Paradise which the righteous will inhabit in the next 
life will be different from that from which Adam was 
expelled. However, the orthodox profess the contrary, 
maintaining that it was created even before the world, and 
describe it, from their prophet's traditions, in the following 
manner : — 

They say it is situated above the seven heavens (or in 
the seventh heaven,) and next under the throne of God ; 
and, to express the amenity of the place, tell us, that the 
earth of it is of the finest wheat-fiour, or of the purest 
musk, or, as others will have it, of saffron ; that its stones 



MAHOMETAN ISM. 



291 



are pearls and jacinths, the walls of its buildings enriched 
with gold and silver, and that the trunks of all its trees 
are of gold ; among which the most remarkable is the tree 
called tuba, or the tree of happiness. Concerning this 
tree, they fable that it stands in the palace of Mahomet, 
though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true 
believer ; that it will be laden with pomegranates, grapes, 
dates, and other fruits, of surprising bigness, and of tastes 
unknown to mortals. So that, if a man desire to eat of any 
particular kind of fruit, it will immediately be presented 
him ; or, if he choose flesh, birds ready dressed will be set 
before him, according to his wish. They add that the 
boughs of this tree will spontaneously bend down to the 
hand of the person who would gather of its fruits, and that 
it will supply the blessed not only with food, but also 
with silken garments, and beasts to ride on ready saddled 
and bridled, and adorned with rich trappings, which will 
burst forth from its fruits ; and that this tree is so large, 
that a person mounted on the fleetest horse would not be 
able to gallop from one end of its shade to the other in 
one hundred years. 

As plenty of water is one of the greatest additions to 
the pleasantness of any place, the Koran often speaks of 
the rivers of Paradise as a principal ornament thereof ; 
some of these rivers, they say, flow with water, some with 
milk, some with wine, and others with honey ; all taking 
their rise from the root of the tree tuba. 

But all these glories will be eclipsed by the resplendent 
and ravishing girls of Paradise, called, from their large 
black eyes, Hur al oyun, the enjoyment of whose company 
will be a principal felicity of the faithful. These, they say, 
are created not of clay, as mortal women are, but of pure 
musk ; being, as their prophet often affirms in his Koran, 
free from all natural impurities, defects, and inconveniences 



292 



MAHOMETANISM. 



incident to the sex ; of the strictest modesty, and secluded 
from public view in pavilions of hollow pearls, so large, 
that, as some traditions have it, one of them will be no 
less than four parasangs (or, as others say, sixty miles) 
long, and as many broad. 

The name which the Mahometans usually give to this 
happy mansion is al Jannat, or, "the Garden;" and 
sometimes they call it, with an addition, Jannat al Ferdaws, 
"the Garden of Paradise;" Jannat Adan, "the Garden 
of Eden," (though they generally interpret the word Eden 
not according to its acceptation in Hebrew, but according 
to its meaning in their own tongue, wherein it signifies "a 
settled or perpetual habitation;") Jannat al Mawa, "the 
Garden of Abode;" Jannat al Maim, "the Garden of 
Pleasure," and the like ; by which several appellations 
some understand so many different gardens, or at least 
places of different degrees of felicity, (for they reckon no 
less than one hundred such in all,) the very meanest 
whereof will afford its inhabitants so many pleasures and 
delights, that one would conclude they must even sink 
under them, had not Mahomet declared that, in order to 
qualify the blessed for a full enjoyment of them, God will 
give to every one the abilities of one hundred men. 

6. God's absolute decree and predestination both of 
good and evil. The orthodox doctrine is, that whatever 
hath or shall come to pass in this world, whether it be 
good, or whether it be bad, proceedeth entirely from the 
Divine will, and is irrevocably fixed and recorded from all 
eternity in the preserved table ; God having secretly pre- 
determined not only the adverse and prosperous fortune 
of every person in this world, in the most minute par- 
ticulars, but also his faith or infidelity, his obedience or 
disobedience, and consequently his everlasting happiness 
or misery after death ; which fate or predestination it is 
not possible by any foresight or wisdom to avoid. 



< 



MAHOMETANISM. 



293 



II. Religious practice. 1. The first point is prayer, 
under which are also comprehended those legal washings 
or purifications which are necessary preparations^ thereto. 

For the regular performance of the duty of prayer 
among the Mahometans, it is requisite, while they pray, 
to turn their faces towards the temple of Mecca; the 
quarter where the same is situated being, for that reason, 
pointed out within their mosques by a niche, which they 
call at Mehrdb ; and without, by the situation of the doors 
opening into the galleries of the steeples ; there are also 
tables calculated for the ready finding out their Keblah, 
or part towards which they ought to pray, in places where 
they have no other direction. 

2. Alms are of two sorts, legal and voluntary* The 
legal alms are of indispensable obligation, being commanded 
by the law, which directs and determines both the portion 
which is to be given, and of what things it ought to consist ; 
but the voluntary alms are left to every one's liberality, to 
give more or less as he shall see fit. The former kind of 
alms some think to be properly called zacat, and the latter, 
sadakat, though this name be also frequently given to the 
legal alms. They are called zacat, either because they 
increase a man's store by drawing down a blessing thereon, 
and produce in his soul the virtue of liberality ; or because 
they purify the remaining part of one's substance from 
pollution, and the soul from the filth of avarice ; and 
sadakat, because they are a proof of a man's sincerity in 
the worship of God. Some writers have called the legal 
alms tithes; but improperly, since in some cases they fall 
short, and in others exceed that proportion. 

3. Fasting is a duty of so great moment, that Mahomet 
used to say it was the gate of religion, and that the odor 
of the mouth of him who fasteth is more grateful to Grod 
than that of mush; and Al Ghazali reckons fasting one 

25* 



294 



MAHOMETANISM. 



fourth part of the faith. According to the Mahometan 
divines, there are three degrees of fasting : 1. The re- 
straining the belly and other parts of the body from satis- 
fying their lusts. 2. The restraining the ears, eyes, 
tongue, hands, feet, and other members from sin. 3. The 
fasting of the heart from worldly cares, and restraining 
the thought from everything besides God. 

4. The pilgrimage to Mecca is so necessary a point of 
practice, that according to a tradition of Mahomet, he who 
dies without performing it, may as well die a Jew or a 
Christian ; and the same is expressly commanded in the 
Koran. 

III. Causes of the success of Mahometanism. — The 
rapid success which attended the propagation of this new 
religion was owing to causes that are plain and evident, 
and must remove, or rather prevent our surprise, when they 
are attentively considered. The terror of Mahomet's 
arms, and the repeated victories which were gained by him 
and his successors, were, no doubt, the irresistible argu- 
ments that persuaded such multitudes to embrace his reli- 
gion, and submit to his dominion. Besides, his law was 
artfully and marvellously adapted to the corrupt nature of 
man ; and, in a most particular manner, to the manners 
and opinions of the Eastern nations, and the vices to 
which they were naturally addicted; for the articles of 
faith which it proposed were few in number, and extremely 
simple ; and the duties it required were neither many nor 
difficult, nor such as were incompatible with the empire of 
appetites and passions. It is to be observed farther, that 
the gross ignorance under which the ArabianSj Syrians, 
Persians, and the greatest part of the Eastern nations, 
labored at this time, rendered many an easy prey to the 
artifice and eloquence of this bold adventurer. To these 
causes of the progress of Mahometanism, we may add the 



MAHOMETANISM. 



295 



bitter dissensions and cruel animosities that reigned among 
the Christian sects, particularly the Greeks, Nestorians, 
Eutycliians, and Monophysites ; dissensions that filled a 
great part of the East with carnage, assassinations, and 
such detestable enormities, as rendered the very name of 
Christianity odious to many. We might add here, that 
the Monophysites and Nestorians, full of resentment 
against the Greeks, from whom they had suffered the bit- 
terest and most injurious treatment, assisted the Arabians 
in the conquest of several provinces, into which, of conse- 
quence, the religion of Mahomet was afterwards intro- 
duced. Other causes of the sudden progress of that reli- 
gion will naturally occur to such as consider attentively 
its spirit and genius, and the state of the world at this 
time. 

IV. Subversion of Mahometanism. — Of things yet to 
come it is difficult to say anything with precision. We 
have, however, some reason to believe, from the aspect of 
Scripture prophecy, that, triumphant as this sect has been, 
it shall at last come to nought. As it arose as a scourge 
to Christendom about the time that Antichrist obtained a 
temporal dominion, so it is not improbable but they will 
have their downfall nearly at the same period. The ninth 
chapter of Revelations seems to refer wholly to this impos- 
ture ; "the four angels were loosed," says the prediction, 
15th verse, " which were prepared for an hour, and a day, 
and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of 
men." This period, in the language of prophecy, makes 
391 years, which being added to the year when the four 
angels were loosed, will bring us down to 1844, or there- 
abouts, for the final destruction of the Mahometan empire. 
It must be confessed, however, that though the event is 
certain, the exact time cannot be easily ascertained. 



296 



JEWS. 



JEWS. 

The name Jews is a name derived from the patriarch 
Judah, and given to the descendants of Abraham by his 
eldest son Isaac. We shall here present the reader with 
as comprehensive a view of this singular people as we can. 

1. History of the Jews. — The Almighty promised Abra- 
ham that he would render his seed extremely numerous : 
this promise began to be fulfilled in Jacob's twelve sons. 
In about two hundred and fifteen years they increased in 
Egypt from seventeen to between two and three millions, 
men, women, and children. While Joseph lived, they were 
kindly used by the Egyptian monarchs ; but soon after, 
from a suspicion that they would become too strong for the 
natives, they were condemned to slavery; but the more 
they were oppressed, the more they grew. The midwives 
and others were therefore ordered to murder every male 
infant at the time of its birth ; but they shifting the horri- 
ble task, everybody was then ordered to destroy the male 
children wherever they found them. 

After they had been thus oppressed for about one hun- 
dred years, and on the very day that finished the four 
hundred and thirtieth year from God's first promise of a 
seed to Abraham, and about four hundred years after the 
birth of Isaac, God, by terrible plagues on the Egyptians, 
obliged them to liberate the Hebrews under the direction 
of Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh pursued them with a 
mighty army ; but the Lord opened a passage for them 
through the Red Sea ; and the Egyptians, in attempting 
to follow them, were drowned. After this, we find them 
in a dry and barren desert, without any provision for their 



1 



jews. 297 

journey ; but God supplied them with water from a rock, 
and manna and quails from heaven. A little after they 
routed the Amalekites, who fell on their rear. In the 
wilderness God delivered them the law, and confirmed the 
authority of Moses. Three thousand of them were cut 
off for worshipping the golden calf ; and for loathing the 
manna, they were punished with a month's eating of flesh, 
till a plague broke out among them ; and for their rash 
belief of the ten wicked spies, and the contempt of the 
promised land, God had entirely destroyed them, had not 
Moses' prayers prevented. They were condemned, how- 
ever, to wander in the desert till the end of forty years, 
till that whole generation, except Caleb and Joshua, should 
be cut off by death. Here they were often punished for 
their rebellion, idolatry, whoredom, &c. God's marvellous 
favors, however, were still continued in conducting and 
supplying them with meat ; and the streams issuing from 
the rock of Meribah followed their camp about thirty-nine 
years, and their clothes never waxed old. 

On their entrance into Canaan, God ordered them to 
cut off every idolatrous Canaanite ; but they spared vast 
numbers of them, who enticed them to wickedness, and 
were sometimes God's rod to punish them. For many ages 
they had enjoyed little prosperity, and often relapsed into 
awful idolatry, worshipping Baalim and Ashtaroth. Micah 
and the Danites introduced it not long after Joshua's 
death. About this time the lewdness of the men of Gibeah 
occasioned a war of the eleven tribes against their brethren 
of Benjamin ; they were twice routed by the Benjamites, 
and forty thousand of them were slain. In the third, 
however, all the Benjamites were slain, except six hundred. 
Vexed for the loss of a tribe, the other Hebrews provided 
wives for these six hundred, at the expense of slaying most 
of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead. 



J 



298 



JEWS. 



Their relapses into idolatry also brought on them re- 
peated turns of slavery from the heathen among or around 
them. See books of Judges and Samuel. Having been 
governed by judges for about three hundred and forty 
years after the death of Joshua, they took a fancy to have 
a king. Saul was their first sovereign, under whose reign 
they had perpetual struggles with the Ammonites, Moab- 
ites, and Philistines. After about seven years' struggling 
between the eleven tribes that clave to Ishbosheth, the son 
of Saul, and the tribe of Judah, who erected themselves 
into a kingdom under David, David became sole monarch. 
Under him they subdued their neighbors, the Philistines, 
Edomites, and others ; and took possession of the whole 
dominion which had been promised them, from the border 
of Egypt to the banks of the Euphrates. Under Solomon 
they had little war ; when he died, ten of the Hebrew 
tribes formed a kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim, for them- 
selves, under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, in opposition to 
the kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, ruled by the family 
of David. The kingdom of Israel, Ephraim, or the ten 
tribes, had never so much as one pious king ; idolatry was 
always their established religion. The kingdom of Judah 
had pious and wicked sovereigns by turns, though they 
often relapsed into idolatry, which brought great distress 
upon them. See books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. 
Not only the kingdom of Israel, but that of Judah, was 
brought to the very brink of ruin after the death of Jeho- 
shaphat. 

After various changes, sometimes for the better and 
sometimes for the worse, the kingdom of Israel was ruined 
two hundred and fifty four years after its erection, by So, 
king of Egypt, and Halmanaser, king of Assyria, who in- 
vaded it, and destroyed most of the people. Judah was 
invaded by Sennacherib ; but Hezekiah's piety and Isaiah's 



JEWS. 



299 



prayer were the means of their preservation ; but under 
Manasseh, the Jews abandoned themselves to horrid im- 
piety ; for which they were punished by Esarhaddon, king 
of Assyria, who invaded and reduced the kingdom, and 
carried Manasseh prisoner to Babylon. Manasseh re- 
pented, and the Lord brought him back to his kingdom, 
where he promoted the reformation; but his son Amon 
defaced all. Josiah, however, again promoted it, and car- 
ried it to a higher pitch than in the reigns of David and 
Solomon. After Josiah was slain by Pharaoh Necho, king 
of Egypt, the people returned to idolatry, and God gave 
them up to servitude to the Egyptians and Chaldeans. 
The fate of their kings, Jehoas, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, 
and Zedekiah, was unhappy. Provoked by Zedekiah's 
treachery, Nebuchadnezzar invaded the kingdom, murdered 
vast numbers, and reduced them to captivity. 

Thus the kingdom of Judah was ruined, A. M. 3416, 
about three hundred and eighty- eight years after its divi- 
sion from that of the ten tribes. In the seventieth year 
from the begun captivity, the Jews, according to the edict 
of Cyrus, king of Persia, who had overturned the empire 
of Chaldea, returned to their own country. See Nehemiah, 
Ezra. Yast numbers of them, who had agreeable settle- 
ments, remained in Babylon. After their return they 
rebuilt the temple and city of Jerusalem, put away their 
strange wives, and renewed their covenant with God. 

About 3490, or 3546, they escaped the ruin designed 
them by Haman. About 3653, Darius Ochus, king of 
Persia, ravaged part of Judea, and carried off a great 
many prisoners. When Alexander was in Canaan, about 
3670, he confirmed to them all their privileges ; and having 
built Alexandria, he settled vast numbers of them there. 
About fourteen years after, Ptolemy Lagus, the Greek 
king of Egypt, ravaged Judea, and carried one hundred 



300 



JEWS. 



thousand prisoners to Egypt, but used them kindly, and 
assigned them many places of trust. About eight years 
after, he transported another multitude of Jews to Egypt, 
and gave them considerable privileges. About the same 
time, Seleucus Nicator, having built about thirty new 
cities in Asia, settled in them as many Jews as he could ; 
and Ptolemy Philadelphus, of Egypt, about 3720, bought 
the freedom of all the Jew slaves in Egypt. Antiochus 
Epiphanes, about 3834, enraged with them for rejoicing 
at the report of his death, and for the peculiar form of 
their worship, in his return from Egypt, forced his way 
into Jerusalem, and murdered forty thousand of them ; 
and about two years after he ordered his troops to pillage 
the cities of Judea, and murder the men, and sell the 
women and children for slaves. Multitudes were killed, 
and ten thousand prisoners carried off; the temple was 
dedicated to Olympius, an idol of Greece, and the Jews 
exposed to the basest treatment. Mattathias, the priest, 
with his sons, chiefly Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, who 
were called Maccabees, bravely fought for their religion 
and liberties. Judas, who succeeded his father about 
3840, gave Nicanor and the king's troops a terrible defeat, 
regained the temple and dedicated it anew, restored the 
daily worship, and repaired Jerusalem, which was almost 
in a ruinous heap. After his death, Jonathan and Simon, 
his brethren, successively succeeded him ; and both wisely 
and bravely promoted the welfare of the Church and 
State. Simon was succeeded by his son Hircanus, who 
subdued Idumea and reduced the Samaritans. In 3899 
he was succeeded by his son Janneus, who reduced the 
Philistines, the country of Moab, Ammon, Gilead, and 
part of Arabia. Under these three reigns alone the Jewish 
nation was independent after the captivity. After the 
death of the widow of Janneus, who governed nine years, 



V 



JEWS. 



301 



the nation was almost ruined by civil broils. In 3939, 
Aristobulus invited the Romans to assist him against Hir- 
canus, his elder brother. The country was quickly re- 
duced, and Jerusalem taken by force ; and Pompey and a 
number of his officers, pushed their way into the sanc- 
tuary, if not into the Holy of Holies, to view the furniture 
thereof. Nine years after, Crasses, the Roman general, 
pillaged the temple of its valuables. After Judea had for 
more than thirty years been a scene of ravage and blood, 
and twenty-four of which had been oppressed by Herod 
the Great, Herod got himself installed in the kingdom. 
About twenty years before our Saviour's birth, he, with 
the Jew's consent, began to build the temple. About this 
time the Jews had hopes of the Messiah ; and about A. M. 
4000, Christ actually came, whom Herod (instigated by 
the fear of losing his throne) sought to murder. The 
Jews; however, a few excepted, rejected the Messiah, and 
put him to death. The sceptre was now wholly departed 
from Judah ; and Judea, about twenty-seven years before, 
reduced to a province. The Jews, since that time, have 
been scattered, contemned, persecuted, and enslaved 
among all nations, not mixed with any in the common 
manner, but have remained as a body distinct by them- 
selves. 

2. Sentiments of the Jews. — The Jews commonly reckon 
but fourteen articles of their faith. Maimonides, a famous 
Jewish rabbi, reduced them to this number when he drew 
up their confession about the end of the eleventh century, 
and it was generally received. All the Jews are obliged 
to live and die in the profession of these thirteen articles, 
which are as follows ; — 1. That God is the creator of all 
things ; that He guides and supports all creatures ; that 
He has done everything ; and that He still acts, and shall 
act during the whole eternity. — 2. That God is one ; there 
26 



302 



JEWS. 



is no unity like his. He alone hath been, is, and shall be 
eternally our God. — 3. That God is incorporeal, and can- 
not have any material properties ; and no corporeal es- 
sence can be compared with him. — 4. That God is the 
beginning and end of all things, and shall eternally sub- 
sist. — 5. That God alone ought to be worshipped, and 
none beside Him is to be adored. — 6. That whatever has 
been taught by the prophets is true. — 7. That Moses is 
the head and father of all contemporary doctors, of those 
who lived before, or shall live after him. — 8. That the law 
was given by Moses. — 9. That the law shall never be 
altered, and that God will give no other. — 10. That God 
knows all the thoughts and actions of men. — 11. That God 
will regard the works of all those who have performed 
what he commands, and punish those who have trans- 
gressed his laws. — 12. That the Messiah is to come, though 
he tarry a long time. — 13. That there shall be a resurrec- 
tion of the dead when God shall see fit. 

The modern Jews adhere still as closely to the Mosaic 
dispensation, as their dispersed and despised condition will 
permit them. Their service consists chiefly in reading the 
law in their synagogues, together with a variety of prayers. 
They use no sacrifices since the destruction of the Temple. 
They repeat blessings and particular praises to God, not 
only in their prayers, but on all accidental occasions, and 
in almost all their actions. They go to prayers three times 
a day in their synagogues. Their sermons are not made 
in Hebrew, which few of them now perfectly understand, 
but in the language of the country where they reside. They 
are forbidden all vain swearing, and pronouncing any of the 
names of God without necessity. They abstain from meats 
prohibited by the Levitical law ; for which reason, what- 
ever they eat must be dressed by Jews, and after a man- 
ner peculiar to themselves. As soon as a child can speak, 



JEWS. 



303 



they teach him to read and translate the Bible into the 
language of the country where they live. In general they 
observe the same ceremonies which were practised by their 
ancestors, in the celebration of the passover. They acknow- 
ledge a two-fold law of God, a written and an unwritten 
one; the former is contained in the Pentateuch, or five 
books of Moses ; the latter, they pretend, was delivered by 
God to Moses, and handed down from him by oral tradi- 
tion, and now to be received as of equal authority with the 
former. They assert the perpetuity of their law, together 
with its perfection. They deny the accomplishment of the 
prophecies in the person of Christ ; alleging that the Mes- 
siah is not yet come, and that he will make his appearance 
with the greatest worldly pomp and grandeur, subduing all 
nations before him, and subjecting them to the house of 
Judah. Since the prophets have predicted his mean con- 
dition and sufferings, they confidently talk of two Messiahs ; 
one Ben-Ephraim, whom they grant to be a person of a 
mean and afflicted condition in this world ; and the other, 
Ben-David, who shall be a victorious and powerful prince 

The Jews pray for the souls of the dead, because they 
suppose there is a paradise for the souls of good men, where 
they enjoy glory in the presence of God. They believe 
that the souls of the wicked are tormented in hell with fire 
and other punishments ; that some are condemned to be 
punished in this manner forever, while others continue only 
for a limited time ; and this they call 'purgatory, which is 
not different from hell in respect of the place, but of the 
duration. They suppose no Jew, unless guilty of heresy, 
or certain crimes specified by the rabbins, shall continue 
in purgatory above a twelvemonth ; and that there are but 
few who suffer eternal punishment. 

Almost all the modern Jews are Pharisees, and are as 
much attached to tradition as their ancestors were ; and 



304 



JEWS. 



assert that whoever rejects the oral law deserves death. 
Hence they entertain an implacable hatred to the Caraites, 
who adhere to the text of Moses, rejecting the rabbinistical 
interpretation. 

There are still some of the Sadducees in Africa, and in 
several other places ; but they are few in number : at least 
there are but very few who declare openly for these opinions. 

There are to this day some remains of the ancient sect 
of the Samaritans, who are zealous for the law of Moses, 
but are despised by the Jews, because they receive only 
the Pentateuch, and observe different ceremonies from 
theirs. They declare they are no Sadducees, but acknow- 
ledge the spirituality and immortality of the soul. There 
are numbers of this sect at Gaza, Damascus, Grand Cairo, 
and in some other places of the east ; but especially at 
Sichem, now called Naplouse, which is risen out of the 
ruins of the ancient Samaria, where they sacrificed not 
many years ago, having a place for this purpose on Mount 
Gerizim. 

David Levi, a learned Jew, who in 1796 published 
" Dissertations on the Prophecies of the Old Testament," 
observes in that work that Deism and infidelity have made 
such large strides in the world, that they have at length 
reached even to the Jewish nation ; many of whom are at 
this time so greatly infected with scepticism, by reading 
Bolingbroke, Hume, Voltaire, &c, that they scarcely be- 
lieve in a revelation ; much less have they any hope in their 
future restoration. 

3. Calamities of the Jews. — All history cannot furnish 
us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews ; 
rapine and murder, famine and pestilence, within ; fire and 
sword, and all the terrors of war, without. Our Saviour 
wept at the foresight of these calamities ; and it is almost 
impossible for persons of any humanity to read the account 



jews. 305 

without being affected. The predictions concerning them 
were remarkable, and the calamities that came upon them 
were the greatest the world ever saw. Deut. xxviii., xxix. ; 
Matt. xxiv. Now, what heinous sin was it that could be 
the cause of such heavy judgments ? Can any other be 
assigned than what the Scripture assigns ? 1 Thess. ii. 
15, 16. " They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own 
prophets, and persecuted the apostles : and so filled up 
their sins, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost." 
It is hardly possible to consider the nature and extent of 
their sufferings, and not conclude the Jews' own impreca- 
tion to be singularly fulfilled upon them. Matt, xxvii. 25. 
" His blood be on us and our children." At Cesarea twenty 
thousand of the Jews were killed by the Syrians in their 
mutual broils. At Damascus ten thousand unarmed Jews 
were killed ; and at Bethshan the heathen inhabitants 
caused their Jewish neighbors to assist them against their 
brethren, and then murdered thirty thousand of these in- 
habitants. At Alexandria the Jews murdered multitudes 
of the heathens, and were murdered in their turn to about 
fifty thousand. The Romans under Vespasian invaded the 
country, and took the cities of Galilee, Chorazen, Beth- 
saida, Capernaum, &c, where Christ had been especially 
rejected, and murdered numbers of the inhabitants. At 
Jerusalem the scene was most wretched of all. At the 
passover, when there might be two or three millions of 
people in the city, the Romans surrounded it with troops, 
trenches, and walls, that none might escape. The three 
different factions within murdered one another. Titus, one 
of the most merciful generals that ever breathed, did all in 
his power to persuade them to an advantageous surrender, 
but they scorned every proposal. The multitudes of un- 
buried carcases corrupted the air, and produced a pesti- 
lence. The people fed on one another ; and even ladies, 
26* u 



306 



JEWS. 



it is said, broiled their sucking infants, and ate them. 
After a siege of six months, the city was taken. They 
murdered almost every Jew they met with. Titus was bent 
to save the Temple, but could not : there were six thousand 
Jews who had taken shelter in it, all burnt or murdered! 
The outcries of the Jews, when they saw it, were most 
dreadful : the whole city, except three towers and a small 
part of the wall, were razed to the ground, and the foun- 
dations of the temple and other places were ploughed up. 
Soon after the forts of Herodian and Macheron were taken, 
the garrison of Massada murdered themselves rather than 
surrender. At Jerusalem alone, it is said, one million one 
hundred thousand perished by sword, famine, and pesti- 
lence. In other places we hear of two hundred and fifty 
thousand that were cut off, besides vast numbers sent to 
Egypt to labor as slaves. About fifty years after, the Jews 
murdered about five hundred thousand of the Roman sub- 
jects, for which they were severely punished by Trajan. 
About 130, one Barocaba pretended that he was the Mes- 
siah, and raised a Jewish army of two hundred thousand, 
who murdered all the heathens and Christians who came 
in their way ; but he was defeated by Adrian's forces. In 
this war, it is said, about sixty thousand Jews were slain 
and perished. Adrian built a city on Mount Calvary, and 
erected a marble statue of swine over the gate that led to 
Bethlehem. No Jew was allowed to enter the city, or to 
look to it at a distance, under pain of death. In 360, they 
began to rebuild their city and temple ; but a terrible earth- 
quake and flames of fire issuing from the earth, killed the 
workmen, and scattered their materials. Nor till the 
seventh century durst they so much as creep over the rub- 
bish to bewail it, without bribing the guards. In the third, 
fourth, and fifth centuries, there were many of them furi- 
ously harassed and murdered. In the sixth century, twenty 



JEWS. 



307 



thousand of them were slain, and as many taken and sold 
for slaves. In 602, they were severely punished for their 
horrible massacre of the Christians at Antioch. In Spain, 
in 700, they were ordered to be enslaved. In the eighth 
and ninth centuries, they were greatly derided and abused : 
in some places they were made, to wear leathern girdles, 
and ride without stirrups on asses and mules. In France 
and Spain they were much insulted. In the tenth, eleventh, 
and twelfth centuries, their miseries rather increased : they 
were greatly persecuted in Egypt. Besides what they suf- 
fered in the East by the Turkish and sacred war, it is 
shocking to think what multitudes of them the eight cru- 
sades murdered in Germany, Hungary, Lesser Asia, and 
elsewhere. In France, multitudes were burnt. In Eng- 
land, in 1020, they were banished ; and at the coronation 
of Richard I. the mob fell upon them, and murdered a great 
many of them. About one thousand and five hundred of 
them were burnt in the palace in the city of York, which 
they set fire to themselves, after killing their wives and 
children. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries their 
condition was no better. In Egypt, Canaan, and Syria, 
the crusaders still harassed them. Provoked with their 
mad running after pretended Messiahs, Caliph Nasser 
scarce left any of them alive in his dominions of Mesopo- 
tamia. In Persia, the Tartars murdered them in multi- 
tudes. In Spain, Ferdinand persecuted them furiously. 
About 1349, the terrible massacre of them at Toledo forced 
many of them to murder themselves, or change their reli- 
gion. About 1253, many were murdered, and others ban- 
ished from France, but in 1275 recalled. In 1320 and 
1330, the crusades of the fanatic shepherds, who wasted 
the south of France, massacred them ; besides fifteen hun- 
dred that were murdered on another occasion. In 1358, 
they were totally banished from France, since which few 



308 



JEWS. 



of them have entered that country. In 1291, king Edward 
expelled them from England, to the number of one hundred 
and sixty thousand. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seven- 
teenth centuries, their miseries continued. In Persia they 
have been terribly used : from 1663 to 1666, the murder 
of them "was so universal, that but a few escaped to Turkey. 
In Portugal and Spain, they have been miserably handled. 
About 1392, six or eight hundred thousand were banished 
from Spain. Some were drow T ned in their passage to Africa, 
some died by hard usage, and many of their carcasses lay in 
the fields till the wild beasts devoured them. In Germany 
they have endured many hardships. They have been ban- 
ished from Bohemia, Bavaria, Cologne, Nuremberg, Augs- 
burgh, and Vienna : they have been terribly massacred in 
Moravia, and plundered in Bonn and Bamberg. Except 
in Portugal and Spain, their present condition is generally 
tolerable. In Holland, Poland, and at Frankfort and Ham- 
burgh, they have their liberty. They have repeatedly, but 
till lately in vain, attempted to obtain a naturalization in 
England, and other nations among w T hom they are scattered. 

4. Preservation of the Jews. — " The preservation of the 
Jews," says Basnage, "in the midst of the miseries which 
they have undergone during 1700 years, is the greatest 
prodigy that can be imagined. Religions depend on tem- 
poral prosperity ; they triumph under the protection of a 
conqueror : they languish and sink with sinking monarchies. 
Paganism, which once covered the earth, is extinct. The 
Christian church, glorious in its martyrs, yet was considera- 
bly diminished by the persecutions to which it was exposed ; 
nor was it easy to repair the breaches in it made by those 
acts of violence. But here we behold a church hated and per- 
secuted for 1700 years, and yet sustaining itself, and widely 
extended. Kings have often employed the severity of edicts 
and the hand of executioners to ruin it. The seditious mul- 



JEWS. 



309 



titudes, by murders and massacres, have committed out- 
rages against it still more violent and tragical. Princes 
and people, Pagans, Mahometans, Christians, disagreeing 
in so many things, have united in the design of extermi- 
nating it, and have not been able to succeed. The bush 
of Moses, surrounded with flames, ever burns, and is never 
consumed. The Jews have been expelled, in different times, 
from every part of the world, which hath only served to 
spread them in all regions. From age to age they have 
been exposed to misery and persecution ; yet still they 
subsist, in spite of the ignominy and the hatred which hath 
pursued them in all places, whilst the greatest monarchies 
are fallen, and nothing remains of them besides the name. 

" The judgments which God has exercised upon this 
people are terrible, extending to the men, the religion, and 
the very land in which they dwelt. The ceremonies essen- 
tial to their religion can no mere be observed ; the ritual 
law, which cast a splendor on the national worship, and 
struck the pagans so much that they sent their presents 
and their victims to Jerusalem, is absolutely fallen, for 
they have no temple, no altar, no sacrifices. Their land 
itself seems to lie under a never-ceasing curse. Pagans, 
Christians, Mohammedans, in a word, almost all nations, 
have by turns seized and held Jerusalem. To the Jew 
only hath God refused the possession of this small tract 
of ground, so supremely necessary for him, since he ought 
to worship on this mountain. A Jewish writer hath af- 
firmed that it is long since any Jew has been seen settled 
near Jerusalem ; scarcely can they purchase there six feet 
of land for a burying-place. 

"In all this there is no exaggeration : I am only point- 
ing out known facts ; and, far from having the least design 
to raise an odium against the nation from its miseries, I 
conclude that it ought to be looked upon as one of those 



310 



JEWS. 



prodigies which we admire without comprehending ; since, 
in spite of evils so durable, and a patience so long exer- 
cised, it is preserved by a particular providence. The 
Jew ought to be weary of expecting a Messiah who so 
unkindly disappoints his vain hopes ; and the Christian 
ought to have his attention and his regard excited towards 
men whom God preserves, for so great a length of time, 
under calamities which would have been the total ruin of 
any other people." 

5. Number and Dispersion of the Jews. — They are looked 
upon to be as numerous at present as they were formerly 
in the land of Canaan. Some have rated them at three 
millions, and others more than double that number. Their 
dispersion is a remarkable particular in this people. They 
swarm all over the east, and are settled, it is said, in the 
remotest parts of China. The Turkish empire abounds 
with them. There are more of them at Constantinople 
and Salonichi than in any other place. They are spread 
through most of the nations of Europe and Africa, and 
many families of them are established in the West Indies ; 
not to mention whole nations bordering on Prester John's 
country, and some discovered in the inner parts of Ame- 
rica, if we may give any credit to their own writers. 
Their being always in rebellions (as Addison observes) 
while they had the Holy Temple in view, has excited most 
nations to banish them. Besides, the whole people are 
now a race of such merchants as are wanderers by profes- 
sion ; and at the same time are in most, if not in all 
places, incapable of holding either lands or offices, that 
might engage them to make any part of the world their 
home. In addition to this, we may consider what provi- 
dential reasons may be assigned for their numbers and 
dispersion. Their firm adherence to their religion, and 
being dispersed all over the earth, has furnished every age 



V 



JEWS. 



311 



and every nation with the strongest arguments for the 
Christian faith ; not only as these very particulars are 
foretold of them, but as they themselves are the deposita- 
ries of these and all other prophecies which tend to their 
own confusion and the establishment of Christianity. 
Their number furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of wit- 
nesses that attest the truth of the Bible, and their disper- 
sion spreads these witnesses through all parts of the world. 

6. Restoration of Jews. — From the declarations of 
Scripture, we have reason to suppose the Jews shall be 
called to a participation of the blessings of the gospel 
(Rom. xi. ; 2 Cor. iii. 16 ; Hos. i. 11) ; and some suppose 
shall return to their own land (Hos. iii. 5 ; Is. lxv. 17, 
etc. ; Ezek. xxxvi). As to the time, some think about 
1866 or 2016 ; but this, perhaps, is not so easy to deter- 
mine altogether, though it is probable it will not be before 
the fall of Antichrist and the Ottoman empire. Let us, 
however, avoid putting stumbling-blocks in their way. If 
we attempt anything for their conversion, let it be with 
peace and love. Let us, says one, propose Christianity to 
them, as Christ proposed it to them. Let us lay before 
them their own prophecies. Let us show them their ac- 
complishment in Jesus. Let us applaud their hatred of 
idolatry. Let us show them the morality of Jesus in our 
lives and tempers. Let us never abridge their civil liberty, 
nor ever try to force their consciences. 



312 



MORMONS. 



MORMONS. 

The founder of the religious community called Mor- 
mons, was Joseph Smith, a native of Vermont. He was a 
remarkable instance of the power of bold religious impos- 
ture, even when united with great ignorance. He pre- 
tended to have been informed by an angel that all existing 
religions were corrupt, and that he was a chosen instru- 
ment to enlighten mankind. He claimed that an angel 
gave him a volume of inspired records, written on plates 
of brass, in Egyptian characters, and that he translated 
them, and from them published the book of Mormon. 

This book is a bungling imitation of the historical style 
of the Sacred Writings, and pretends to give an account 
of the history of the church in this country in an early 
period of the world. The resemblance of names of per- 
sons and places to those found in the Scriptures is so pal- 
pable, that an intelligent reader is not in more danger of 
mistaking them for realities, than one would be of fancy- 
ing that Obstinate and Pliable, in Bunyan, were real per- 
sonages ; and yet thousands have received it as inspired. 

On the 6th of April, 1830, the Mormon Church was 
organized in Manchester, Ontario County, N. Y., under 
the name of "Latter Day Saints." 

The odiousness of this imposture, and the pretensions 
of the Mormons that they were God's chosen instruments 
to destroy the wicked and take possession of the earth, 
awakened violent opposition. This opposition augmented 
their power, by presenting them as a persecuted people. 
They sent out missionaries into every part of the country. 
These missionaries styled themselves prophets, and pre- 



1 



MORMONS. 313 

tended to work miracles. Like a magnet drawn through 
sand, attracting to itself those particles which have no 
affinity for it, so did this Mormon ministry draw together 
persons of homogeneous tendencies to fanaticism. At 
first churches were formed in various places. Afterwards 
they assembled in large numbers in Clay County, Ken- 
tucky. Being expelled by a most culpable popular vio- 
lence, they removed, and were driven from place to place 
till they settled in Hancock County, Illinois. Here they 
built a city, which they called Nauvoo. They collected from 
30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, and began to build a temple 
of stone 120 feet long by 80 broad, of which Smith said that 
it was " a unique wonder for the world, being built by the 
direct revelation of Jesus Christ, for the salvation of the 
living and the dead." Their military arrangements and 
arrogant pretensions again called forth violence. Smith 
was arrested, and lost his life by the violence of his ene- 
mies. The society was broken up, and removed to the 
"Far West." The Mormons believe in the gospel, and 
doubtless include Christians among them. They are Bap- 
tists and Millenarians. They have sent missionaries to 
almost every part of the world, and were reckoned by 
Smith, in 1844, to be more than 150,000 in number. 

They are now settled in the Territory of Utah, and their 
capital is Salt Lake City. They have been established 
there since 1847. Their numbers in Utah are estimated 
at 40,000, and the total number of the sect throughout 
the world at 100,000. 



27 



J 



314 



PELAGIANS 



PELAGIANS. 

Pelagianism is that theological view which denies the 
total corruption of men, attributed to the fall of Adam 
(original sin), and declares man's natural capacity suffi- 
cient for the exercise of Christian duties and virtues, pro- 
vided he have but an earnest purpose to do well. It does 
not exclude faith in divine assistance towards man's im- 
provement, but believes this assistance will be granted to 
those only who strive to improve themselves. This view 
was broached by the English monk Pelagius, who, in the 
fifth century, resided in Rome, with the reputation of great 
learning and an unspotted life, and fled from that city 
when it was taken by the Goths, in 409, with his friend 
Coelestus, to Sicily, and thence to Africa, where Augus- 
tine declared him a heretic ; in which several African 
synods concurred. Pelagius travelled to Jerusalem, and 
there closed his life in tranquillity, in the year 420, at the 
age of ninety years. The philosophical soundness and 
noble frankness of his writings, together with his own 
great virtue in a time of universal and deep-rooted corrup- 
tion, procured many adherents to his opinions, which at all 
times have been considered, by some of the purest and 
most reflecting men, as the only ones worthy of the Deity. 
He never attempted to found a heretical or dissenting 
sect, yet the Pelagians, whose views were formally con- 
demned at the Council of Ephesus, in 431, and the Semi- 
Pelagians, founded by John Cassianus at Marseilles (died 
in 435), who somewhat modified the orthodox dogma of the 
utter insufficiency of man's nature for virtue, occupy a very 
important place in ecclesiastical history. 



V 



EUT YCHIANS. 



315 



EUTYCHIANS. 

The Eutychians were a sect of Christians which began 
in the east in the fifth century. Eutyches, its reputed 
founder, though the opinions attributed to him are said to 
have existed before (de Eutyehianismo ante Eutychen, by 
Christ. Aug. Selig, and also Assemani, Bihliotheea Orien- 
talis, torn, i., p. 219), was a monk who lived near Constan- 
tinople, and had a great reputation for austerity and sanc- 
tity. He was already advanced in years when he came 
out of his retirement, A. D. 448, in order to oppose the 
Nestorians, who were accused of teaching " that the divine 
nature was not incarnate in, but only attendant on, Jesus, 
being superadded to his human nature after the latter was 
formed;" an opinion, however, which Nestorius himself 
had disavowed. In his zeal for opposing the error ascribed 
to the Nestorians, Eutyches ran into the opposite extreme 
of saying that in Christ there was " only one nature, that 
of the incarnate Word," his human nature having been 
absorbed in a manner by his divine nature. 

Eusebius, Bishop of Dorylseum, who had already op- 
posed the Nestorians, denounced Eutyches before a council 
assembled at Constantinople by Flavianus, bishop of that 
city. That assembly condemned Eutyches, who, being 
supported by friends at the court of Theodosius II., ap- 
pealed to a general council, which was soon after convoked 
by the emperor at Ephesus, A. D. 449, under the presi- 
dency of Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria, and successor 
to the famous Cyril, who had himself broached a doctrine 
very similar to that of Eutyches. 

The majority of the council tumultuously acquitted Eu- 



316 BUTYCHIANS. 

tyches, and condemned Flavianus ; the bishops opposed to 
him were obliged to escape, and Flavianus was cruelly 
scourged by the soldiers. It was, in short, a scene of dis- 
graceful violence, which earned for the Council of Ephe- 
sus the name of "a meeting of robbers." 

Flavianus appealed to Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 
who, in his answer, condemned the doctrine of Eutyches, 
but could not obtain of Theodosius the convocation of 
another council. After the death of that emperor, his 
successor, Marcianus, convoked a council at Chalcedon, 
A. D. 451, which is reckoned as the fourth oecumenical 
council of the Church, and which the Pope's legates at- 
tended. By this assembly the acts of the Council of Ephe- 
sus were annulled, Dioscorus was deposed and banished, 
and Eutyches, who had already been banished by the em- 
peror, was again condemned, and deprived of his sacer- 
dotal office. 

The doctrine was at the same time expounded that " in 
Christ two distinct natures are united in one person, and 
that without any change, mixture, or confusion." Euty- 
ches died in exile ; but several monks, especially in Syria, 
continued the schism, and having found a protectress in the 
Empress Eudocia, the widow of Theodosius, who was liv- 
ing in Palestine, they became more daring, and excited 
the people against the partisans of the Council of Chalce- 
don, whom they stigmatized as Nestorians. The emperor 
was obliged to send troops to repress these disorders. 

The doctrine of Eutyches was perpetuated in the east 
under certain modifications, or rather quibbling of words, 
which caused the sect to be subdivided under various 
names, all, however, comprehended under the general 
name of Monophysites, or believers in one nature. In the 
sixth century a fresh impulse was given to the Eutychian 
doctrine by one Jacob, a monk, surnamed Baradoeus, who 



EUTYCHIANS. 



31T 



reconciled the various divisions of the Monophysites 
throughout the east, and spread their tenets through Syria, 
Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, found supporters 
among several prelates (among others in the Bishop of 
Alexandria), and died himself Bishop of Edessa, A. D. 
588. He was considered as the second founder of the 
Monophysites, who assumed from him the name of Jacob- 
ites, under which appellation they still constitute a very- 
numerous church, equally separate from the Greek, the 
Roman or Latin, and the Nestorian churches. The Ar- 
menians and the Copts are Jacobites, and so are likewise 
many Syrian Christians in contradistinction to the Melch- 
ites, who belong to the Greek Church. Jacobite congre- 
gations are found in Mesopotamia. 

The Monothelites who appeared in the seventh century 
have been considered as an offshoot of the Eutychians or 
Monophysites, though they pretended to be quite uncon- 
nected with them. They admitted the two natures in 
Christ, explaining that after the union of the two into one 
person, there was in him only one will and one operation. 
This was an attempt to conciliate the Monophysites with 
the orthodox church, and it succeeded for a time. It was 
approved of by many eastern prelates, and even by Pope 
Honorius L, in two epistles to Sergius, patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, which are found in the Acts of the Councils. 
But the successors of Honorius condemned the Monothe- 
lites, and Martin I., in a bull of excommunication, A. D. 
649, consigned them and their patrons (meaning the Em- 
peror Constans, who protected them) " to the devil and his 
angels." Constans, indignant at this, caused his exarch 
in Italy to arrest Martin, and send him prisoner to the 
Chersonesus. At last, under Constantine, who succeeded 
Constans, the Council of Constantinople, which is the 
27 * 



318 



FIFTH MONARCHY MEN. 



sixth oecumenical council, A. D. 680, condemned the Mo- 
nothelites, and with them Pope Honorius himself. 



FIFTH MONARCHY MEN, 

A sect of religionists, whose distinguishing tenet was a 
belief in the fifth universal monarchy, of which Jesus 
Christ was to be the head, while the saints, under his per- 
sonal sovereignty, should possess the earth. They ap- 
peared in England towards the close of the Protectorate ; 
and in 1660, a few months after the Restoration, they 
broke out into a serious tumult in London under their 
leader Venner, in which many of them lost their lives, 
some being killed by the military, and others afterwards 
executed. Several Fifth Monarchy Men also suffered 
death in 1662, on a charge (most probably unfounded) of 
having conspired to kill the King and the Duke of York, 
to seize the Tower, etc. They are the same who were 
sometimes called Millenarians, their notion being that the 
reign of Christ upon earth was to last for a thousand 
years. They seem also, from the extravagance and vio- 
lence of conduct into which they occasionally broke out, 
to have been confounded, in the popular imagination, with 
the old Anabaptists of Miinster. 



ERATRICELLI. 



319 



FRATRICELLI. 

Fratricelli, or Little Brethren, also called Fratres de 
paupere vita, a religious sect which arose in Italy towards 
the end of the thirteenth century. They were Franciscan 
monks, who separated themselves from the grand commu- 
nity of St. Francis, with the intention of obeying the laws 
of their founder in a more rigorous manner than they 
were observed by the other Franciscans. They accord- 
ingly renounced every kind of property, both common and 
individual, and begged from door to door their daily sub- 
sistence, alleging that neither Christ nor his Apostles had 
any possessions, either individual or in common ; and that 
these were the models which St. Francis had commanded 
them to imitate. They went about clothed in rags, de- 
claiming against the vices of the Pope and the bishops, 
and foretold the reformation of the Church and the resto- 
ration of the true gospel of Christ, by the real followers 
of St. Francis. As the Franciscan order acknowledges 
for its companions a set of men who observe the third rule 
prescribed by St. Francis, and were therefore commonly 
called Tertiarii ; so likewise the order of the Fratricelli, 
who were anxious to be considered as the only true fol- 
lowers of St. Francis, had a great number of Tertiarii 
attached to their cause. These Tertiarii, or half-monks, 
were called in Italy Bizochi or Bocazoi, in France Be- 
gums, in Germany Begwards or Beghards. This last 
appellation was generally applied to them. The Tertiarii 
differed from the Fratricelli, not in their opinions, but only 
in their manner of living. The Fratricelli were real 
monks, subject to the rule of St. Francis, whilst the Bizo- 



320 



FRATRICELLI. 



chi or Beghards, as well as the Franciscan Tertiarii, ex- 
cepting their dirty habits, and certain maxims and obser- 
vances which they followed in compliance with the rules 
of their patron saint, lived after the manner of other 
men, and were therefore considered as laymen. The Beg- 
hards were divided into two classes, the perfect and the 
imperfect. The first lived on alms, abstained from mar- 
riage, and had no fixed dwellings ; the second had houses, 
wives, and possessions, and were engaged in the common 
avocations of life like other people. Pope Celestin V. 
was favorably disposed to the Fratricelli, and permitted 
them to constitute themselves into a separate order. They 
were submissive to that Pope, but they violently opposed 
his successor, Boniface VIII., and subsequent Popes who 
persecuted their sect. The Fratricelli were accused of 
great enormities, and persecuted by the court of Rome ; 
but they found protection from princes, nobles, and towns, 
who respected them on account of the austerity of their 
devotion. The Fratricelli did not always submit with the 
meekness of the first Christian martyrs to their persecu- 
tors, but frequently opposed force to force, and even put 
to death some inquisitors in Italy. This sect continued 
during the fourteenth century, and spread as far as Bohe- 
mia, Silesia, and Poland. The members of it were most 
severely persecuted in the fifteenth century, and many of 
them fled from France to England and Ireland. All the 
persecutions directed against the sect did not, however, 
extinguish it ; and some remnants of it existed till the 
Reformation of Luther, whose doctrines they embraced. 
Their name is supposed to have been derived from Fratri- 
cellus or Frater cuius, an Italian nickname which was ap- 
plied in the middle ages to all persons who, without be- 
longing to any religious order, assumed a sanctimonious 
appearance. 



MANICHiEANS. 



321 



PIETISTS. 

Pietists is the name given in the seventeenth century 
to a kind of German Methodists or Evangelicals, who, 
being members of the Lutheran Church, were dissatisfied 
with the cold dogmatism of the generality of its clergy, 
and felt the want of a revival of religious feeling and of 
practical piety and charity. Without separating them- 
selves from the church, they instituted meetings called 
" Collegia Pietatis," from which the denomination of Pietists 
was derived. Philip Jacob Spencer, a divine of the 
Lutheran Church, who was preacher at Frankfort, and 
afterwards at Dresden and Berlin, was the chief promoter 
of these meetings, which began about 1670. He wrote 
several ascetic works, and died in 1705. A spirit similar 
to that of the Pietists of Germany has arisen in our own 
times in the Swiss and French Protestant churches, and 
the promoters of it, after suffering considerable annoyance 
from the less religious part of the community, have suc- 
ceeded in effecting a revival of evangelical doctrines and 
practice. They have been styled in derision "Momiers" 
(from momerie, mummery), a name which the great 
majority of them are far from deserving. 



MANlCHiEANS. 

The Manichseans were an heretical Christian sect, who 
derived their name from Mani, as he is called by the 
Persians and Arabians, or Manes or Manichaeus, according 
to the Greek and Roman writers. The particulars of the 

v 



322 



MANICHJEAN S. 



life and death of this individual are variously reported by 
the Greek and Oriental writers ; but it appears from all 
accounts that he was a native of Persia, or at least brought 
up in that country ; that he was well acquainted with the 
doctrines of the Magi ; that he attempted to amalgamate 
the Persian religion with Christianity ; and that after 
meeting with considerable success, he was eventually put 
to death by Varanes I., king of Persia. It is difficult to 
determine the exact time at which the doctrines of Mani 
were first promulgated in the Roman empire ; but they do 
not appear to have been known before the end of the third 
century or the beginning of the fourth. 

The Manichaeans believed, like the Magi, in two eternal 
principles, from which all things proceed, namely, light 
and darkness, which are respectively subject to the 
dominion of two beings, one the god of good, and the other 
the god of evil. They also believed that the first parents 
of the human race were created by the god of darkness 
with corrupt and mortal bodies, but that their souls formed 
part of that eternal light which was subject to the god of 
light. They maintained that it was the great object of 
the government of the god of light to deliver the captive 
souls of men from their corporeal prisons, and that with 
this view he created two sublime beings, Christ and the 
Holy Ghost, and sent Christ into the world, clothed with 
the shadowy form of a human body, and not with the real 
substance, to teach mortals how to deliver the rational 
soul from the corrupt body, and to overcome the power of 
malignant matter. Referring to the promise of Christ 
shortly before his crucifixion, which is recorded by John 
(xvi. 7-15), that he would send to his disciples the Com- 
forter, "who would lead them into all truth," the Mani- 
chgeans maintained that this promise was fulfilled in the 
person of Mani, who was sent by the god of light to declare 



MANICHJEANS. 



323 



to all men the doctrine of salvation, without concealing 
any of its truths under the veil of metaphor, or under any 
other covering. Mani also taught that those souls which 
obeyed the laws delivered by Christ, as explained by him- 
self the Comforter, and struggled against the lusts and 
appetites of a corrupt nature, would, on their death, be 
delivered from their sinful bodies, and, after being purified 
by the sun and moon, would ascend to the regions of light ; 
but that those souls which neglected to struggle against 
their corrupt natures would pass after death into the bodies 
of animals or other beings, until they had expiated their 
guilt. Their belief in the evil of matter led them to deny 
the doctrine of the resurrection. 

Mani entirely rejected the authority of the Old Testa- 
ment, which he had said was the word of the god of dark- 
ness, whom the Jews had worshipped in the place of the 
god of light. He asserted that the books of the New 
Testament had been grossly interpolated ; and that they 
were not all written by the persons whose names they bear. 
The doctrines of the sect were contained in four works, 
said to have been written by Mani himself, which were 
entitled respectively "Mysteries," " Chapters," " Gospel," 
and " Treasury ;" but we know little or nothing of their 
contents. 

Bower, in the second volume of his " History of the 
Popes," has attempted to prove that the Manichseans were 
addicted to immoral practices ; but this opinion has been 
ably controverted by Beausobre and Lardner, who have 
shown that they were, on the contrary, exceedingly rigor- 
ous and austere in their mode of life. 

The disciples of Mani were divided into two classes, one 
of which was called the Elect, and the other Hearers. 
The former were bound to abstain from animal food, wine, 
and all sensual enjoyments ; the latter were considered as 



324 



MANIC HiEANS. 



imperfect and feeble Christians, and were not obliged to 
submit to such a severe mode of life. The ecclesiastical 
constitution of the Manichseans consisted of twelve apostles 
and a president, who represented Christ ; of seventy-two 
bishops, who also represented the seventy-two disciples of 
Christ ; and of presbyters and deacons, as in the Catholic 
church. 

The Manichaeans never appear to have been very 
numerous, but they were spread over almost all parts of 
the Christian world. Numerous treatises were written 
against them, the most important of which were by 
Eusebius of Csesarea, Eusebius of Emesa, Serapion of 
Thumis, Athanasius of Alexandria, George and Apolli- 
narius of Laodicea, and Titus of Bostra. Much valuable 
information concerning this sect may be found in the 
writings of Augustine, who was for nine years a zealous 
supporter of the Manichsean doctrines. 

The Paulicians are generally considered to be a branch 
of the Manichsean sect, and are supposed to have appeared 
first in the seventh century in Armenia, and to have 
derived their name from Paul, a zealous preacher of the 
doctrines of Mani. 

In the sixth century the Manichaean doctrines are said 
to have spread very widely in Persia. They continued to 
have supporters, under their new name of Paulicianism, 
till a very late period in ecclesiastical history. About the 
middle of the eighth century, the emperor Constantine, 
surnamed Copronymus, transplanted from Armenia a great 
number of Paulicians to Thrace ; where they continued to 
exist even after the capture of Constantinople by the 
Turks. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the doc- 
trines of the Paulicians were introduced into Italy and 
France, and met with considerable success. 



MARCIONITES. 



325 



MAECIONITES. 

The Marcionites were a religious sect of the second and 
third centuries of our sera, so called from their teacher 
Marcion, a native of Sinope and a priest, who adopted the 
old Oriental belief of two independent, eternal, co-existing 
principles, one evil and the other good. He endeavored 
to apply this doctrine to Christianity, asserting that our 
souls are emanations of the good principle, but our bodies 
and the whole visible world are the creation of the evil 
genius, who strives to chain down our spiritual nature by 
corporeal fetters, so as to make the soul forget its pure 
and noble origin. He further maintained that the law of 
Moses, with its threats and promises of things terrestrial, 
was a contrivance of the evil principle in order to bind 
men still more to the earth ; but that the good principle, 
in order to dissipate these delusions, sent Jesus Christ, a 
pure emanation of itself, giving him a corporeal appearance 
and a semblance of bodily form, in order to remind men 
of their intellectual nature, and that they cannot expect 
to find happiness until they are reunited to the principle 
of good from which they are derived. Marcion and his 
disciples condemned all pleasures which are not spiritual ; 
they taught that it was necessary to combat every impulse 
that attaches us to the visible world ; they condemned 
marriage, and some of them even regretted the necessity 
of eating of the fruits of the earth, which they believed to 
have been created by the evil principle. The Marcionites 
spread far in the East, and especially in Persia. The 
chief opponent of Marcion was Tertullianus, who wrote a 
book to refute his doctrines. 
28 



326 



MARONITES. 



MAKONITES. 

Maronites is the name of a community of Christians 
belonging to the Western or Roman church, and living on 
Mount Lebanon. They are the neighbors of, and allied 
to, and in some places mixed with the Druses, and, like 
them, independent, in great measure, of the Turkish 
power. The Maronites occupy the valleys and fastnesses 
of the principal ridge of Lebanon east of Beyroot and 
Tripoli, and they extend inland as far as the Bekaa, or 
plain between the Libanus and Anti-Libanus, where they 
are mixed with the Druses, though they do not intermarry 
with them. The town of Zhakle', in the valley of Bekaa, 
contains between ten and twelve thousand inhabitants, 
chiefly Maronites. 

There are also many Maronites at Beyroot and Tripoli ; 
but the tract of country in which the great bulk of the 
Maronites reside is called Kesrouan. It extends along 
the ridge of Libanus from the Nahr el Kelb, a stream 
which enters the sea twelve miles north of Beyroot, to the 
Nahr el Kebir, which enters the sea north of Tripoli, near 
the island of Ruad, the ancient Aradus, on which side the 
Maronites border on the Nosairis, or Ansarieh, who extend 
to the northward towards Latakieh, and the Ismaelians, 
who live farther inland, near the banks of the Orontes. 
To the eastward, the Maronites have for neighbors the 
Metualis, a tribe of independent Moslems, of the sect of 
Ali, who live under their own emir, and occupy the belad 
or district of Baalbek and part of the Anti-Libanus ; and 
on the south they border on the territory of the Druses, 
with whom they form one political body, being subject to 
the Emir Beschir, in so far as they join him when he calls 



MARONITES. 



327 



them to arms for the common defence, and pay him their 
share of the tribute, which the emir paid formerly to the 
Porte, and now pays to the pasha of Egypt. But in their 
internal concerns the Maronites are governed by their 
own sheiks, of whom there is one in every village, from 
whose decision there is an appeal to the bishops, who have 
great authority ; and in some cases to the emir of the 
Druses, and his divan or council. 

The clergy are very numerous ; the secular parish 
clergy are married, as in the Greek church ; but the 
regular clergy, who are said to amount to 20,000, and are 
distributed among about 200 convents, follow the rule of 
St. Anthony, and are bound by vows of chastity and 
obedience. The Maronite monks are not idle ; they cul- 
tivate the land belonging to their convents, and live by its 
produce. Every convent is a farm. The convents are 
under the jurisdiction of bishops, of whom there is one in 
every large village. The bishops are under the obligation 
of celibacy. The bishops collectively elect the patriarch, 
who is confirmed by the pope, and who resides at the 
convent of Kanobin, in a valley of the Libanus, south-east 
of Tripoli, where there is a printing-press, which furnishes 
the elementary books for the use of the Maronite schools. 

Not far from Kanobin is the large village of Eden, ten 
miles above which, and high up the Libanus, is the famed 
clump of old cedars, called the " Cedars of Solomon," of 
large dimensions, but now reduced to seven in number 
(Lamartine, V oyage en Orient ; Richardson), not including 
the younger and smaller ones. Dr. Richardson measured 
the trunk of one of the old trees, and found it thirty-two 
feet in circumference. The whole clump of old and young- 
trees may. be walked round in about half an hour. Old 
cedars are not found in any other part of Libanus. 

At the opposite or southern extremity of the Kesrouan 



328 MARONITES. 

is the handsome convent of Antoura, which is the residence 
of the papal legate and of some European missionaries. 
Near it is a convent of Maronite nuns. 

The Maronites derive their name from a monk of the 
name of Maro, who, in the fifth century, collected a number 
of followers, and founded several convents in these moun- 
tains. When the Monothelite heresy prevailed in the East 
in the seventh century, and was favored by the court of 
Constantinople, many Christians who did not embrace its 
tenets took refuge in the fastnesses of Libanus, around the 
convents, and thus the name of Maronites was assumed by 
the population of the mountains. This is the account of 
the Maronites themselves ; others pretend that the Maro- 
nites were Monothelites, who took refuge in the Libanus 
after the Emperor Anastasius II. had condemned and pro- 
scribed their sect, in the beginning of the eighth century. 
Joseph Simonius Assemani, and his friend Ambarach, 
better known as Father Benedetti, have defended the 
Maronites from the charge of Monothelitism. Ambarach 
translated from the Arabic into Latin the work of Stephen, 
patriarch of Antioch, concerning the origin and liturgy of 
the Maronites. In 1736, at a great synod held at Mar- 
hanna, the Maronite church formally acknowledged the 
canons of the Council of Trent, but they retained the mass 
in the Syriac language, and the marriage of the priests. 
Before that time they received the sacrament under both 
forms, as in the Greek church. At mass the priest turns 
towards the congregation and reads the gospel of the day 
in Arabic, which is the vulgar tongue. 

The Maronite population is said to be above 200,000 
individuals, and to contain between thirty and forty thou- 
sand men fit for military service. Every Maronite is 
armed, and they are all soldiers in case of need. Volney 
reckoned them, in 1784, at 120,000, but the population 



V 



CALVINISTS. 



329 



has been rapidly increasing since that time. Their lan- 
guage is Arabic, and by their appearance and habits they 
belong to the Arabian race. They are a fine-looking 
people, high-spirited, civil, and hospitable, especially 
towards European travellers, and perfectly honest. Rob- 
bery and other acts of violence are hardly known among 
them. They are altogether an interesting race, full of 
vigor, and perhaps destined with the Druses to act an 
important part in the future vicissitudes of Syria. (Jowett, 
Light, Lamartine, and other travellers in Syria.) 

There is at Rome, on the Quirinal Mount, a convent of 
Maronite monks, who perform the service of the mass in 
the Syriac language, according to the liturgy of their 
country. This church was founded by Pope Gregory 
XIII., and is dedicated to St. John. The monastery 
serves as a college for young Maronites who come to 
Rome to study and take orders, after which they return 
to their own country. It is one of those exotic colonies 
which give a peculiar interest to the city of Rome. 

The ceremonies of these Maronites of Rome on great 
festivals, their chanting in Syriac, and their curious 
musical instruments, are described by the Abbe Richard, 
in his " Voyage en Italie." 



CALVINISTS. 

The followers of the religious doctrine and Church 
government instituted by Calvin. Calvin published his 
system in his " Christian Institutes," in the year 1536; 
but it does not appear to have obtained the name of Cal- 
vinism, nor its supporters the name of Calvinists, till the 
conference of Poissy, in 1561. The reformer was not 
28* 



330 



CALVINISTS. 



himself present at that assembly, being prevented from 
attending by his local duties and the ill state of his health ; 
but we see from his correspondence with Beza, the deputy 
from Geneva, how deep was his interest in its proceedings, 
and that nothing was done on the part of the reformers 
without his knowledge and advice. In the debate which 
took place on the Augsburg Confession, the points of differ- 
ence between the Lutherans and Calvinists were drawn 
out ; and they were such as that from thenceforth the 
latter became known as a distinct sect under that denomi- 
nation. 

The tenets of Calvinism respect the doctrines of the 
Trinity, predestination, or particular election and repro- 
bation, original sin, particular redemption, effectual or 
irresistible grace in regeneration, justification by faith, and 
the perseverance of Saints ; together also with the govern- 
ment and discipline of the Church, the nature of the 
eucharist, and the qualification of those entitled to partake 
of it. The great leading principles of the system, how- 
ever, are the absolute decrees -of God, the spiritual pres- 
ence of Christ in the eucharist, and the independence of 
the Church. 

Calvinism was, perhaps, like Lutheranism, exemplified 
first at Strasburg ; where, in the year 1538, Calvin esta- 
blished a French church on his own plan. But it was at 
Geneva the system was seen in all its vigor ; and from 
thence it spread into France, Germany, Prussia, the United 
Provinces, England and Scotland. To this last place it 
was carried by Knox, the disciple and intimate correspond- 
ent of Calvin ; and as within the little territory of Geneva 
there was neither room nor need for the parochial sessions, 
presbyteries, provincial synods, and general assembly, into 
which the presbyterial government expands itself in a large 
community, we shall briefly advert to its leading features 



CAL VINISTS. 



331 



in Scotland, as it appeared there in the lifetime of Knox. 
We shall thus, indeed, see the Church of Scotland in its 
infancy ; but, at the same time, — and it is this we have 
chiefly in view, — we shall thus, perhaps, have the best idea 
of the matured opinions of the great reformer. 

The Confession of Faith, ratified by the Scotch parlia- 
ment in 1560, declares * that by the sin of our first parents, 
" commonly called original sin, the image of God was 
utterly defaced in man, and he and his posterity of nature 
became enemies of God, slaves to Satan, and servants unto 
sin ; insomuch that death everlasting has had, and shall 
have, power and dominion over all that have not been, are 
not, or shall not be, regenerated from above, which regene- 
ration is wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost working 
in the hearts of the elect of God an assured faith in the 
promise of God revealed in his word ; that " from the 
eternal and immutable decree of God all our salvation 
springs and depends ;" " God of mere grace electing us in 
Christ Jesus his Son before the foundation of the world 
was laid;" and that " our faith and the assurance of the 
same proceeds not from flesh and blood, that is to say, 
from our natural powers within us, but is the inspiration 
of the Holy Ghost;" "who sanctifies us and brings us in 
all verity by his own operation, without whom we should 
remain for ever enemies to God and ignorant of his son 
Christ Jesus ; for of nature we are so dead, so blind, and 
so perverse, that neither can we feel when we are pricked, 
see the light when it shines, nor assent to the will of God 
when it is revealed, unless the spirit of the Lord Jesus 
quicken that which is dead, remove the darkness from our 
minds, and bow our stubborn hearts to the obedience of 
his blessed will ;" "so that the cause of good works we 



* We have here modernized the spelling. 



332 



CAL VINISTS. 



confess to be not our free will, but the spirit of the Lord 
Jesus, who, dwelling in our hearts by true faith, brings 
forth such works as God has prepared for us to walk in ;" 
and " whoso boast themselves of the merits of their own 
works, or put their trust in works of supererogation, boast 
themselves in that which is not, and put their trust in 
damnable idolatry." It further admits that "we now, in 
the time of the evangel, have two chief sacraments only," 
to wit, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; by the former of 
which, " we are ingrafted in Christ Jesus to be made par- 
takers of his justice, by which our sins are covered and 
remitted ;" and in the latter it is asserted there is a real 
though only spiritual presence of Christ, and "in the sup- 
per rightly used, Christ Jesus is joined with us, that he 
becomes very nourishment and food of our souls." The 
marks of a true church are said to be the true preaching 
of the word of God, the right administration of the sacra- 
ments, and ecclesiastical discipline rightly administered as 
the word of God prescribes. The polity or constitution 
of the Church, however, is not detailed ; this was done in 
the "Book of discipline" drawn up by Knox and his 
brethren. The highest Church judicatory is the General 
Assembly, composed of representatives from the others, 
which are provincial synods, presbyteries, and kirk ses- 
sions. The officers of the Church are pastors or ministers, 
doctors or teachers, and lay elders, to which are to be 
added lay deacons, for the care of the poor. Among the 
clergy there is a perfect parity of jurisdiction and autho- 
rity, and in the Church courts clergy and laity have equal 
voices. The minister and the elder indeed are both pres- 
byters — the one a preaching presbyter, and the other a 
ruling presbyter ; and it will be remembered that when 
Bucer expressed his approbation of the episcopal hierarchy 
of England, Calvin said it was only another papacy. An- 



MOLINISTS. 



333 



other principal, recognised alike by Calvin and the re- 
formers of Scotland, was the education of the people ; 
which both seem to have regarded as the rock upon which 
the Reformed Church should be built ; and in Scotland, as 
was fit, this foundation was as broad as the building, it 
being meant that, besides the universities of the kingdom, 
there should be in every district a parish church and a 
parish school. 



MOLINISTS. 

Louis Molina, born at Cuenca in Castile, entered the 
order of Jesuits in 1553. He studied at Coimbra, became a 
learned divine, and taught theology for twenty years in the 
college of Evora. He died at Madrid in the year 1600. He 
wrote commentaries upon Thomas Aquinas, and a treatise 
"De Justitia et Jure;" but the work which has rendered 
his name famous as the head of a school of theology is his 
book " De Concordia Gratise et Liberi Arbitrii," printed at 
Lisbon in 1568, with an appendix to it, published after. 
In this work Molina undertook the task of reconciling the 
free-will of man with the foreknowledge of God and predes- 
tination. He observed that the early fathers who had pre- 
ceded the heresy of Pelagius had defined predestination as 
being the foreknowledge of God from all eternity of the 
use which each individual would make of his free-will ; but 
St. Augustine, who had to oppose the Pelagians, who 
granted too much to free-will, spoke of predestination in a 
more absolute and restricted sense. Molina says that man 
requires grace in order to do good, but that God never 
fails to grant this grace to those who ask it with fervor. 



334 



MOLINISTS. 



He also asserts that man has it in his power to answer, or 
not, to the calling of grace. 

The opinions of Molina, which were adopted, enlarged, 
and commented upon by the Jesuits, and strongly opposed 
by the Dominicans, gave rise to the long disputes concern- 
ing grace and free-will. The partisans of Molina were 
called Molinists, and their antagonists Thomists, from Tho- 
mas Aquinas, the favorite divine of the Dominican order. 
Already in Molina's lifetime his opinions were stigmatized 
as savoring of Pelagianism. After numerous disputations, 
Pope Paul V., in 1609, forbade both Jesuits and Domini- 
cans from reviving the controversy. But soon after Jan- 
senius, bishop of Ypres, wrote a book in which he dis- 
cussed the question concerning grace after the manner of 
St. Augustine. His book was denounced by the Jesuits, 
and thus the dispute began afresh between the Molinists 
and the Jansenists. Pascal, in his second "Lettre Pro- 
vinciale," gives an account of the state of the contro- 
versy in his time. He says that " the Jesuits pretend that 
there is a sufficient grace imparted unto all men, and sub- 
ordinate to their free-will, which can render it active or 
inactive, while the Jansenists maintain that the only suffi- 
cient grace is that which is efficacious, that is to say, which 
determines the will to act effectively. The Jesuits sup- 
port the 4 sufficient grace,' the Jansenists the 6 efficacious 
grace.' " 

Molina must not be confounded with Molinos (Michael)) 
a Spanish clergyman of the seventeenth century, who was 
the founder of the theory of piety and devotion called Qui- 
etism, of which Fenelon and Madame Guyon were distin- 
guished supporters. 



MONTANISTS. 



335 



MONTANISTS, 

Or Cat a Phrygians., were a sect of Christians, which arose 
in Phrygia about 171 A. D. They were called Montanists 
from their leader Montanus, and Cataphrygians or Phry- 
gians, from the country in which they first appeared. 

Of the personal history of Montanus little is known. 
He is said to have been born at Ardaba, a village in Mysia, 
and to have been only a recent convert when he first made 
pretensions to the character of a prophet. His principal 
associates were two prophetesses, named Prisca or Priscilla, 
and Maximilla. According to some of the ancient writers, 
Montanus was believed by his followers to be the Paraclete, 
or Holy Spirit. Probably this is an exaggeration, but it 
is certain that he claimed divine inspiration for himself and 
his associates. They delivered their prophecies in an 
ecstasy, and their example seems to have introduced into 
the church the practice of appealing to visions in favor of 
opinions and actions, of which practice Cyprian and others 
availed themselves to a great extent. Tertullian, who be- 
longed to this sect, informs us that these revelations rela- 
ted only to points of discipline, and neither affected the 
doctrines of religion nor superseded the authority of Scrip- 
ture. The doctrines of Montanus agreed in general with 
those of the Catholic Church, but some of his followers ap- 
pear to have embraced the Sabellian heresy. The Mon- 
tanists were chiefly distinguished from other Christians by 
the austerity of their manners and the strictness of their 
discipline. They condemned second marriages, and prac- 
tised fasts. They maintained that all flight from perse- 
cution was unlawful, and that the Church had no power to 
forgive great sins committed after baptism. They held the 



336 



MUGGLETONIANS. 



doctrine of the personal reign of Christ on earth at the 
Millennium. They are accused by some of the early writers 
of celebrating mysteries attended by deeds of cruelty and 
lewdness, but it appears quite certain that these charges 
are unfounded. 

The Montanists were warmly opposed by the writers of 
the Catholic party, though they were once countenanced 
for a short time by a bishop of Rome, whose name is un- 
known, but who is supposed by some to have been Victor. 
Tertullian wrote several works in defence of their opinions. 

The sect was numerous, and lasted a considerable time. 
They still existed in the time of Augustin and Jerome, the 
latter of whom wrote against them. 



MUGGLETONIANS. 

The Muggletonians were a sect of Christians which arose 
in England in the year 1651. The leaders of this sect 
were Lodowicke Muggleton, a journeyman tailor, and John 
Reeve, who asserted that they had been appointed by an 
audible voice from God, as the last and greatest prophets 
of Jesus Christ, that they were the two witnesses mentioned 
in the 11th chapter of the Revelations, and that they had 
power to bless or damn to all eternity whomsoever they 
pleased. They published a great number of works, and 
obtained many followers. The chief writers against them 
were the Quakers, and among these, George Fox and Wm. 
Penn. On the 17th of January, 1676, Muggleton was tried 
at the Old Bailey, and convicted of blasphemy. He died 
on the 14th of March, 1697, at the age of 88. 

It is impossible here to give a full account of the strange 



FLAGELLANTS. 



337 



doctrines of this sect. The chief articles of their creed 
appear to have been, that God has the real body of a man, 
that the Trinity is only a variety of names of God, that 
God himself came down to earth, and was born as a man 
and suffered death, and that during this time Elias was 
his representative in heaven. They held very singular 
and not very intelligible doctrines concerning angels and 
devils. According to them the soul of man is inseparably 
united with the body, with which it dies and will rise 
again. 

A complete collection of the works of Reeve and Mug- 
gleton, together with other Muggletonian tracts, was pub- 
lished by some of their modern followers, in 3 vols. 4to., 
1832. Among the works written against them are the fol- 
lowing: "The New Witnesses proved Old Heretics," by 
William Penn, 4to., 1672 ; "A True Representation of the 
Absurd and Mischievous Principles of the Sect commonly 
known by the name of Muggletonians," 4to., London, 1694. 



FLAGELLANTS, 

(From the h^tm flagellar e, to beat,) the name of a sect in 
the 13th century, who thought that they could best expiate 
their sins by the severe discipline of the scourge. Rainer, 
a hermit of Perugia, is said to have been its founder, in 
1260. He soon found followers in nearly all parts of Italy. 
Old and young, great and small, ran through the cities, 
scourging themselves, and exhorting to repentance. Their 
number soon amounted to 10,000, who went about, led by 
priests bearing banners and crosses. They went in thou- 
sands from country to country, begging alms. In 1261, 
29 w 



338 



FLAGELLANTS. 



they broke over the Alps in crowds into Germany, showed 
themselves in Alsatia, Bavaria, Bohemia, and Poland, and 
found there many imitators. In 1296, a small band of Fla- 
gellants appeared in Strasburg, who, with covered faces, 
whipped themselves through the city, and at every church. 
The princes and higher clergy were little pleased with this 
new fraternity, although it was favored by the people. The 
shameful public exposure of the person by the Flagellants 
offended good manners ; their travelling in such numbers 
afforded opportunity for seditious commotions, and irregu- 
larities of all sorts ; and their extortion of alms was a 
severe tax upon the peaceful citizen. On this account, 
both in Germany and in Italy, several princes forbade these 
expeditions of the Flagellants. The kings of Poland and 
Bohemia expelled them with violence from their states, and 
the bishops strenuously opposed them. In spite of this, the 
society continued under another form, in the fraternities 
of the Beghards, in Germany and France, and in the be- 
ginning of the fifteenth century, among the Brothers of the 
Cross, so numerous in Thuringia (so called from wearing 
on their clothes a cross on the breast and on the back), of 
whom 91 were burnt at once at Sangershausen, in 1414. 
The council assembled at Constance, between 1414 and 
1418, was obliged to take decisive measures against them. 
Since this time nothing more has been heard of a fraternity 
of this sort. 

Flagellation has almost always been used for the punish- 
ment of crimes. Its application as a means of religious 
penance is an old Oriental custom, admitted into Christi- 
anity partly because self-torture was considered salutary 
as mortifying the flesh, and partly because both Christ and 
the apostles underwent scourging. From the first century 
of Christianity, religious persons sought to atone for their 
sins, and to move an impartial Judge to compassion and 



FLAGELLANTS. 



339 



pardon by voluntary bodily torture. Like the abbot Re- 
gino, at Prum, in the 10th century, many chose to share 
in the sufferings of Christ, in order to make themselves the 
more certain of forgiveness through him. It became gen- 
eral in the 11th century, when Peter Damiani of Ravenna, 
abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Croce d' Avel- 
lano, near Gubbio, in Italy, afterwards cardinal bishop of 
Ostia, zealously recommended scourging as an atonement 
for sin, to Christians generally, and, in particular, to the 
monks. His own example, and the fame of his sanctity, 
rendered his exhortations effective. Clergy and laity, men 
and women, began to torture themselves with rods and 
thongs and chains. They fixed certain times for the inflic- 
tion of this discipline upon themselves. Princes caused 
themselves to be scourged naked by their father confessors. 
Louis IX. constantly carried with him, for this purpose, an 
ivory box, containing five small iron chains, and exhorted 
his father confessor to scourge him with severity. He like- 
wise gave similar boxes to the princes and princesses of his 
house, and to other pious friends, as marks of his peculiar 
favor. The wild expectation of being purified from sin by 
flagellation, prevailed throughout Europe in the last half 
of the 13th century. "About this time," says the monk 
of Padua, in his chronicles of the year 1260, " when all 
Italy was filled with vice, the Perugians suddenly entered 
upon a course never before thought of; after them the 
Romans, and at length all Italy. The fear of Christ exerted 
upon the people so strong an influence, that men of noble 
and ignoble birth, old and young, traversed the streets of 
the city naked, yet without shame. Each carried a scourge 
in his hand, with which he drew forth blood from his tor- 
tured body, amidst sighs and tears, singing, at the same 
time, penitential psalms, and entreating the compassion of 
the Deity. Both by day and night, and even in the coldest 



340 



FLAGELLANTS. 



winters, by hundreds and thousands, they wandered through 
cities and churches, streets and villages, with burning wax 
candles. Music was then silent, and the song of love echoed 
no more; nothing was heard but atoning lamentations. 
The most unfeeling could not refrain from tears ; discord- 
ant parties were reconciled; usurers and robbers hastened 
to restore their unlawful gains ; criminals, before unsus- 
pected, came and confessed their crimes, &c." But these 
penances soon degenerated into noisy fanaticism and a sort 
of trade. The penitents united into fraternities called the 
Flagellants (described above), of which there were branches 
in Italy, France, and Germany. After the council of Con- 
stance (1414-18), both clergy and laity by degrees became 
disgusted with flagellation. The Franciscan monks in 
France (Cordeliers) observed the practice longest. It is 
not to be wondered at, that a custom so absurd was so long 
maintained, when we remember the great advantages which 
the sufferers promised themselves. In the opinion of men 
in the middle ages, flagellation was equivalent to every sort 
of expiation for past sins, imposed by the father confessors. 
3000 strokes, and the chanting of 30 penitential psalms, 
were sufficient to cancel the sins of a year ; 30,000 strokes, 
the sins of 10 years, &c. An Italian widow, in the 11th 
century, boasted that she had made expiation by voluntary 
scourging for 100 years, for which no less than 300,000 
stripes were requisite. The opinion was prevalent, like- 
wise, that, however great the guilt, by self-inflicted pain, 
hell might be escaped, and the honor of peculiar holiness 
acquired. By this means, flagellation gained a charm in 
the sight of the guilty and ambitious, which raised them 
above the dread of corporeal suffering, till the conceits of 
hypocrisy vanished before the clearer light of civilization 
and knowledge. 



V 



ANABAPTISTS. 



341 



ANABAPTISTS. 

Anabaptists are those who maintain that baptism ought 
always to be performed by immersion. The word is com- 
pounded of am, "anew," and /3atf<nov%-, "a Baptist;" sig- 
nifying that those who have been baptized in their infancy 
ought to be baptized anew. It is a word which has been 
indiscriminately applied to Christians of very different 
principles and practices. The English and Dutch Bap- 
tists do not consider the word as at all applicable to their 
sect ; because those persons whom they baptize they con- 
sider as never having been baptized before, although they 
have undergone what they term the ceremony of sprink- 
ling in their infancy. 

The Anabaptists of Germany, besides their notions con- 
cerning baptism, depended much upon certain ideas which 
they entertained concerning a perfect church establish- 
ment, pure in its members, and free from the institutions 
of human policy. The most prudent part of them consi- 
dered it possible, by human industry and vigilance, to 
purify the church ; and seeing the attempts of Luther to 
be successful, they hoped that the period was arrived in 
which the church was to be restored to this purity. Others, 
not satisfied with Luther's plan of reformation, undertook 
a more perfect plan, or, more properly, a visionary enter- 
prise, to found a new church, entirely spiritual and divine. 

This sect was soon joined by great numbers, whose 
characters and capacities were very different. Their pro- 
gress was rapid ; for, in a very short space of time, their 
discourses, visions, and predictions, excited great commo- 
tions in a great part of Europe. The most pernicious fac- 
29* 



342 



ANABAPTISTS. 



tion of all those which composed this motley multitude, 
was that which pretended that the founders of this new 
and perfect church were under a divine impulse, and were 
armed against all opposition by the power of working 
miracles. It was this faction that, in the year 1521, be- 
gan their fanatical work under the guidance of Munzer, 
Stubner, Storick, etc. These men taught that, among 
Christians, who had the precepts of the gospel to direct, 
and the Spirit of God to guide them, the office of magis- 
tracy was not only unnecessary, but an unlawful encroach- 
ment on their spiritual liberty ; that the distinctions occa- 
sioned by birth, rank, or wealth should be abolished; that 
all Christians, throwing their possessions into one stock, 
should live together in that state of equality which be- 
comes members of the same family ; that, as neither the 
laws of nature, nor the precepts of the New Testament, 
had prohibited polygamy, they should use the same liberty 
as the patriarchs did in this respect. 

They employed, at first, the various arts of persuasion 
in order to propagate their doctrines, and related a number 
of visions and revelations with which they pretended to 
have been favored from above ; but when they found that 
this would not avail, and that the ministry of Luther and 
other reformers was detrimental to their cause, they then 
madly attempted to propagate their sentiments by force of 
arms. Munzer and his associates, in the year 1525, put 
themselves at the head of a numerous army, and declared 
war against all laws, governments, and magistrates of 
every kind, under the chimerical pretext that Christ him- 
self was now to take the reins of all government into his 
hands ; but this seditious crowd was routed and dispersed 
by the Electer of Saxony and other princes, and Munzer, 
their leader, put to death. 

Many of his followers, however, survived, and propa- 



ANABAPTISTS. 



343 



gated their opinions through Germany, Switzerland, and 
Holland. In 1533, a party of them settled at Munster, 
under two leaders of the names of Matthias and Bock- 
holdt. Having made themselves masters of the city, they 
deposed the magistrates, confiscated the estates of such as 
had escaped, and deposited the wealth in a public treasury 
for common use. They made preparations for the defence 
of the city ; invited the Anabaptists in the Low Countries 
to assemble at Munster, which they called Mount Sion, 
that from thence they might reduce all the nations of the 
earth under their dominion. Matthias was soon cut off by 
the Bishop of Munster's army, and was succeeded by 
Bockholdt, who was proclaimed by a special designation 
of heaven, as the pretended King of Sion, and invested 
with legislative powers like those of Moses. The city of 
Munster, however, was taken after a long siege, and Bock- 
holdt punished with death. 

It must be acknowledged that the true rise of the insur- 
rections of this period ought not to be attributed to reli- 
gious opinions. The first insurgents groaned under severe 
oppressions, and took up arms in defence of their civil 
liberties ; and of these commotions the Anabaptists seem 
rather to have availed themselves, than to have been the 
prime movers. That a great part were Anabaptists seems 
indisputable; at the same time, it appears from history 
that a great part also were Roman Catholics, and a still 
greater part of those who had scarcely any religious prin- 
ciples at all. Indeed, when we read of the vast numbers 
that were concerned in these insurrections, of whom it is 
reported that 100,000 fell by the sword, it appears reason- 
able to conclude that they were not all Anabaptists. 

It is but justice to observe also, that the Baptists of 
our time have nothing in common with this sect. They 
profess an equal aversion to all principles of rebellion on 
the one hand, and to enthusiasm on the other. 



344 



ANTINOMIANS. 



ANTINOMIANS. 

Antinomians are those who maintain that the law is of 
no use or obligation under the gospel dispensation, or who 
hold doctrines that clearly supersede the necessity of good 
works. The Antinoniians took their name from John 
Agricola, about the year 1538, who taught that the law is 
no way necessary under the gospel ; that good works do 
not promote our salvation, nor ill ones hinder it ; that re- 
pentance is not to be preached from the decalogue, but 
only from the gospel. 

This sect sprang up in England during the protectorate 
of Cromwell, and extended their system of libertinism 
much farther than Agricola did. Some of them, it is said, 
maintained that if they should commit any kind of sin, it 
would do them no hurt, nor in the least affect their eternal 
state ; and that it is one of the distinguishing characters 
of the elect, that they cannot do anything displeasing to 
God. It is necessary, however, to observe here, and can- 
dor obliges us to confess, that there have been others, who 
have been styled Antinomians, who cannot, strictly speak- 
ing, be ranked with these men ; nevertheless, the unguarded 
expressions they have advanced, the bold positions they 
have laid down, and the double construction which might 
so easily be put upon many of their sentences, have led 
some to charge them with Antinomian principles. 

For instance, when they have asserted justification to be 
eternal, without distinguishing between the secret determi- 
nation of God in eternity and the execution of it in time; 
when they have spoken lightly of good works, or asserted 
that believers have nothing to do with the law of God, 



JUMPERS. 



345 



without fully explaining what they mean ; when they as- 
sert that God is not angry with his people for their sins, 
nor in any sense punishes them for them, without distin- 
guishing between fatherly correction and vindictive punish- 
ment ; these things, whatever be the private sentiments of 
those who advance them, have a tendency to injure the 
minds of many. It has been alleged that the principal 
thing they have had in view was to counteract those legal 
doctrines which have so much abounded among the self- 
righteous ; but granting this to be true, there is no occa- 
sion to run from one extreme to another. Had many of 
those writers proceeded with more caution, been less dog- 
matical, more explicit in the explanation of their senti- 
ments, and possessed more candor towards those who dif- 
fered from them, they would have been more serviceable 
to the cause of truth and religion. 



JUMPERS. 

Jumpers, persons so called from the practice of jumping 
during the time allotted for religious worship. This sin- 
gular practice began, it is said, in the western part of 
Wales, about the year 1760. It was soon after defended 
by Mr. William Williams, (the Welsh poet, as he is some- 
times called,) in a pamphlet, w T hich was patronized by the 
abettors of jumping in religious assemblies. Several of 
the more zealous itinerant preachers encouraged the people 
to cry out gogoniant (the Welsh word for glory,) amen, &c, 
&c. ; to put themselves in violent agitations ; and, finally, 
to jump until they were quite exhausted, so as often to be 
obliged to fall down on the floor or field, where this kind 
of worship was held. 



346 



LABADISTS. 



LABADISTS. 

The Labadists were so called from their founder, John 
Labadie, a native of France. He was originally in the 
Romish communion; but leaving that, he became a mem- 
ber of the reformed church, and performed with reputation 
the ministerial functions in France, Switzerland, and Hol- 
land. He at length erected a new community, which 
resided successively at Middleburg, in Zealand, Amster- 
dam, Hervorden, and at Altona, where he died about 1674. 
After his death, his followers removed their wandering 
community to Wiewert, in the district of North Holland, 
where it soon fell into oblivion. If we are to judge of the 
Labadists by their own account, they did not differ from 
the reformed church so much in their tenets and doctrines 
as in their manners and rules of discipline ; yet it seems 
that Labadie had some strange notions. Among other 
things, he maintained that God might and did, on certain 
occasions, deceive men ; that the faithful ought to have all 
things in common ; that there is no subordination or dis- 
tinction of rank in the true church ; that in reading the 
Scriptures greater attention should be paid to the internal 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit than to the words of the 
text ; that the observation of Sunday was a matter of in- 
difference ; that the contemplative life is a state of grace 
and union with God, and the very height of perfection. 



MYSTICS, 



347 



MYSTICS. 

Mystics, a sect distinguished by their professing pure, 
sublime, and perfect devotion, with an entire disinterested 
love of God, free from all selfish considerations. The 
authors of this mystic science, which sprung up towards 
the close of the third century, are not known ; but the 
principles from which it was formed are manifest. Its 
first promoters proceeded from the known doctrine of the 
Platonic school, which was also adopted by Origen and 
his disciples, that the divine nature was diffused through 
all human souls ; or that the faculty of reason, from which 
proceed the health and vigor of the mind, was an emana- 
tion from God into the human soul, and comprehended in 
it the principles and elements of all truth, human and 
divine. They denied that men could, by labor or study, 
excite this celestial flame in their breasts ; and therefore 
they disapproved highly of the attempts of those who, by 
definitions, abstract theorems, and profound speculations, 
endeavored to form distinct notions of truth, and to dis- 
cover its hidden nature. 

On the contrary, they maintained that silence, tranquil- 
lity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts as 
might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the 
means by which the hidden and internal word was excited 
to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct men in the 
knowledge of divine things. For thus they reasoned : — 
Those who behold with a noble contempt all human affairs ; 
who turn away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and 
shut all the avenues of the outward senses against the con- 
tagious influences of a material world, must necessarily 
return to God when the spirit is thus disengaged from the 



348 



MYSTICS. 



j 



impediments that prevented that happy union ; and in this 
blessed frame they not only enjoy inexpressible raptures 
from their communion with the Supreme Being, but are 
also invested with the inestimable privilege of contemplating 
truth undisguised and uncorrupted m its native purity, 
while others behold it in a vitiated and delusive form. 

The number of the Mystics increased in the fourth 
century, under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who 
L r :ive himself out for Dionysius, the Areopagite disciple of 
St. Paul, and probably lived about this period ; and by 
pretending to higher degrees of perfection than other 
Christians, and practising greater austerity, their cause 
gained ground, especially in the eastern provinces, in the 
fifth century. 

A copy of the pretended works of Dionysius was sent 
by Balbus to Lewis the Meek, in the year 824, which 
kindled the only flame of mysticism in the western pro- 
vinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic 
admiration of this new religion. In the twelfth century 
these Mystics took the lead in their method of expounding 
the Scriptures. In the thirteenth century they were the 
most formidable antagonists of the schoolmen ; and, to- 
wards the close of the fourteenth, many of them resided 
and propagated their tenets almost in every part of 
Europe. They had, in the fifteenth century, many per- 
sons of distinguished merit in their number; and in the 
sixteenth century, previous to the Reformation, if any 
sparks of real piety subsisted under the despotic empire 
of superstition, they were only to be found among the 
Mystics. 

The celebrated Madame Bourignon, and the amiable 
Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray, were of this sect. Dr. 
Haweis, in speaking of the Mystics, Church History, vol. 
iii. p. 47, thus observes: " Among those called Mystics, I 



MYSTICS. 



349 



am persuaded some were found who loved God out of a 
pure heart fervently ; and though they were ridiculed and 
reviled for proposing a disinterestedness of love without 
other motives, and as professing to feel in the enjoyment 
of the temper itself an abundant reward, their holy and 
heavenly conversation will carry a stamp of real religion 
upon it." 

As the late Rev. William Law, who was born in 1687, 
makes a distinguished figure among the modern Mystics, 
a brief account of the outlines of his system may, perhaps, 
be entertaining to some readers. He supposed that the 
material world was the very region which originally 
belonged to the fallen angels. At length the light and 
spirit of God entered into the chaos, and turned the 
angels' ruined kingdom into a paradise on earth. God 
then created man, and placed him there. He was made 
in the image of the triune God, a living mirror of the 
divine nature, formed to enjoy communion with Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, and live on earth as the angels do 
in heaven. He was endowed with immortality, so that 
the elements of this outward world could not have any 
power of acting on his body ; but by his fall he changed 
the light, life, and spirit of God for the light, life, and 
spirit of the world. He died the very day of his trans- 
gression to all the influences and operations of the Spirit 
of God upon him, as we die to the influences of this world 
when the soul leaves the body ; and all the influences and 
operations of the elements of this life were open in him, 
as they were in any animal, at his birth into this world ; 
he became an earthly creature, subject to the dominion of 
this outward world, and stood only in the highest rank of 
animals. But the goodness of God would not leave man 
in this condition ; redemption from it was immediately 
granted, and the bruiser of the serpent brought the light, 
30 



350 



ABYSSINIAN CHURCH. 



life, and spirit of heaven, once more into the human nature. 
All men, in consequence of the redemption of Christ, have 
in them the first spark, or seed, of the divine life, as a 
treasure hid in the centre of our souls, to bring forth, by 
degrees, a new birth of that life which was lost in Paradise. 
No son of Adam can be lost, only by turning away from 
the Saviour within him. The only religion which can save 
us, must be that which can raise the light, life, and Spirit 
of God in our souls. Nothing can enter into the vegetable 
kingdom till it have the vegetable life in it, or be a member 
of the animal kingdom till it have the animal life. Thus 
all nature joins with the Gospel in affirming that no man 
can enter into the kingdom of heaven till the heavenly life 
is born in him. Nothing can be our righteousness or 
recovery but the divine nature of Jesus Christ derived to 
our souls. 



ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, 

That which is established in the empire of Abyssinia. 
They are a branch of the Copts, with whom they agree 
in admitting only one nature in Jesus Christ, and rejecting 
the Council of Chalcedon ; whence they are also called 
Monophysites and Eutychians. 

The Abyssinian Church is governed by a Bishop, styled 
Abuna, They have canons also, and monks. The em- 
peror has a kind of supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. 
The Abyssinians have at divers times expressed an incli- 
nation to be reconciled to the see of Rome ; but rather 
from interested views than from any other motive. They 
practice circumcision on females, as well as males. They 
eat no meats prohibited by the law of Moses. They ob- 



ADAMITES. 



351 



serve both Saturday and Sunday sabbaths. Women are 
obliged to the legal purifications. Brothers marry their 
brother's wives, &c. 

On the other hand they celebrate the Epiphany with 
peculiar festivity ; have four Lents ; pray for the dead ; 
and invoke angels. Images in painting they venerate, 
but abhor all those in relievo, except the cross. They 
admit the apocryphal books and the canons of the apostles, 
as well as the apostolical constitutions, for genuine. They 
allow of divorce, which is easily granted among them, and 
by the civil judge ; nor do their civil laws prohibit poly- 
gamy. They have, at least, as many miracles and legends 
of saints as the Romish Church. They hold that the soul 
of man is not created ; because, say they, God finished all 
his works on the sixth day. 

Thus we see that the doctrines and ritual of this sect 
form a strange compound of Judaism and Christianity, 
ignorance and superstition. Some, indeed, have been at a 
loss to know whether they are most Christians or Jews ; it 
is to be feared, however, that there is little beside the 
name of Christianity among them. 



ADAMITES, 

A "SECT that sprang up in the second century. Epiphanius 
tells us that they were called Adamites from their pretend- 
ing to be re-established in the state of innocence, such as 
Adam was at the moment of his creation, whence they 
ought to imitate him in going naked. They detested mar- 
riage ; maintaining that the conjugal union would never 
have taken place upon earth had sin been unknown. This 
obscure and ridiculous sect did not last long. It was, 



352 



ALBIGENSES. 



however, revived with additional absurdities, in the twelfth 
century. About the beginning of the fifteenth century, 
these errors spread in Germany and Bohemia ; it found 
also some partisans in Poland, Holland, and England. 
They assembled in the night ; and, it is said, one of the 
fundamental maxims of their society was contained in the 
following verse : 

Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli. 
Swear, forswear, and reveal not the secret. 



ALBIGENSES. 

Albigenses (Albigeois) ; a name common to several 
sects, particularly the Cathari and Waldenses, who agreed 
in opposing the dominion of the Roman hierarchy, and 
endeavoring to restore the simplicity of primitive Chris- 
tianity. They had increased very much towards the close 
of the twelfth century, in the south of France, about Tou- 
louse and Albi, and were denominated by the crusaders 
Albigenses from the district Albigeois (territory of Albi), 
where the army of the cross, called together by Pope 
Innocent III., attacked them in 1209. The assassination 
of the papal legate and inquisitor, Peter of Castelnau, 
while occupied in extirpating these heretics in the terri- 
tory of the Count Raymond of Toulouse, occasioned this 
war, which is important as the first which the Romish 
Church waged against heretics within her own dominions. 
It was carried on with a degree of cruelty which cast a 
deep shade over the Roman clergy, as their real object 
appeared to be to deprive the Count of Toulouse of his 
possessions, on account of his tolerating the heretics. It 
was in vain that this powerful prince had suffered a dis- 



ALBIGENSES. 353 

graceful penance and flagellation from the legate Milo, and 
obtained the papal absolution by great sacrifices. The 
legates, Arnold, Abbot of Citeaux, and Milo, took Beziers, 
the capital of his nephew Roger, by storm, and put all the 
inhabitants (about 60,000), without any distinction of 
creed, to the sword. Simon de Montfort, the military 
leader of the crusade, under the legates, was equally se- 
vere towards other places in the territory of Raymond and 
his allies, of whom Roger died in a prison, and Peter I., 
king of Arragon, in battle. The lands taken were pre- 
sented by the Church, as a reward for his services, to the 
Count of Montfort, who, however, on account of the 
changing fortune of war, never obtained the quiet posses- 
sion of them ; he was killed by a stone, at the siege of 
Toulouse, in 1218. The legates prevailed on his son 
Amalric to cede his claims to the king of France. The 
papal indulgences attracted from all provinces of France 
new crusaders, who continued the war, and, even after 
the death of Raymond VI., in 1222, under excommunica- 
tion, his son, Raymond VII., was obliged; notwithstanding 
his readiness to do penance, to defend his inheritance till 
1229 against the legates and Louis VIII, of France, who 
fell, in 1226, in a campaign against the heretics. After 
hundreds of thousands had fallen on b,oth sides, and the 
most beautiful parts of Provence and Upper Languedoc had 
been laid waste, a peace was made, by the terms of which 
Raymond was obliged to purchase his absolution with a large 
sum of money, to cede Narbonne, with several estates, to 
Louis IX., and make his son-in-law, a brother of Louis, heir 
of his other lands. The pope suffered these provinces to 
come into the possession of the king of France, in order 
to bind him more firmly to his interests, and force him to 
receive his inquisitors. The heretics were now delivered 
up to the proselyting zeal of the Dominicans, and to the 
30* " x 



354 



PANTHEISTS. 



courts of the inquisition ; and these new auxiliaries, which 
priestcraft had acquired during the war, employed their 
whole power to bring the remainder of the Albigenses to 
the stake, and made even the converts feel the irrecon- 
cilable anger of the Church, by heavy fines and personal 
punishments. The name of the Albigenses disappeared 
after the middle of the thirteenth century ; but fugitives 
of their party formed, in the mountains of Piedmont and 
in Lombardy, what is called the French Church, which was 
continued through the Waldenses, to the times of the 
Hussites and the Reformation. 



PANTHEISTS. 

Pantheism, a philosophical species of idolatry, leading 
to atheism, in which the universe was considered as the 
Supreme God. Who was the inventor of this absurd sys- 
tem, is perhaps not known, but.it was of early origin, and 
differently modified by different philosophers. Some held 
the universe to be one immense animal, of which the incor- 
poreal soul was properly their god, and the heavens and 
the earth the body of that god ; whilst others held but one 
substance, partly active, and partly passive, and therefore 
looked upon the visible universe as the only Numen. The 
earliest Grecian pantheists of whom we read was Orpheus, 
who called the world the body of God, and its several parts 
his members, making the whole universe one divine animal. 
According to Cudworth, Orpheus and his followers believed 
in the immaterial soul of the world : therein agreeing with 
Aristotle, who certainly held that God and matter are co- 
eternal : and that there is some such union between them, 



SOUTHCOTTIANS. 



355 



as subsists between the souls and bodies of men. An in- 
stitution, embodying sentiments nearly of this kind, was set 
on foot about eighty or ninety years ago, in England, by 
a society of philosophical idolaters, who called themselves 
Pantheists, because they professed the worship of All Na- 
ture as their deity. They had Mr. John Toland for their 
secretary and chaplain. Their liturgy was in Latin ; an 
English translation was published in 1751, from which the 
following sentiments are extracted : " The ethereal fire en- 
virons all things, and is therefore supreme. The aether is 
a reviving fire : it rules all things, it disposes all things. 
In it is soul, mind, prudence. This fire is Horace's par- 
ticle of divine breath, and Virgil's inwardly nourishing 
spirit. All things are comprised in an intelligent nature." 
This force they call the soul of the world ; as also, a mind 
of perfect wisdom, and, consequently, God. Vanini, the 
Italian philosopher, was nearly of this opinion : his god was 
nature. Some very learned and excellent remarks are made 
on this error by Mr. Boyle, in his discourse on the vulgarly 
received notion of nature. 



SOUTHCOTTIANS, 

The followers of Joanna Southcott, a well-known modern 
fanatic, in England. When a young woman, living in ser- 
vice at Exeter, she persuaded herself that she held converse 
with the devil, and communion with the Holy Ghost, by 
whom she pretended to be inspired. A dissenting minister 
faithfully warned her of the delusion ; but some clergymen 
in the establishment giving credit to her claim, confirmed 
her in her pretensions. 



356 



SOUTHCOTTIANS. 



In 1792, she assumed the character of a prophetess, and 
of the woman in the wilderness, and began to give sealed 
papers to her followers, which were called her seals, and 
which were to protect both from the judgments of the pre- 
sent and a future life : and, strange as it must appear, 
thousands fell into the snare, and placed as much confi- 
dence in her certificates as if they had been issued by the 
pope himself. 

Her predictions were delivered both in humble prose and 
doggerel rhyme ; and related, beside some personal threat- 
enings against her opponents, to the denunciations of judg- 
ments on the surrounding nations, and a promise of the 
speedy approach of the millennium. 

In the course of her mission (as she called it), several 
agents were employed ; particularly a boy, who pretended 
to see visions, and attempted, instead of writing, to depict 
them on the walls of her temple, called 'The House of God,' 
in miserable daubings, corresponding with the style of her 
rhyming. A schism, however, took place among her fol- 
lowers ; and an illiterate man, of the name of Carpenter, 
took possession of the place, and wrote against her ; not 
denying her mission, but asserting she had exceeded it, and 
exposed herself to just censure. 

Early in her last year she secluded herself from the so- 
ciety of the male sex, and fancied she was with child : yet, 
conscious (as since appears) that she had had no connexion 
with a man, she immediately concluded it must be by the 
Holy Spirit. She now flattered herself that she was to 
bring forth the Shiloh promised by Jacob, and which she 
pretended was to be the second appearance of the Messiah. 
This child was to be born before the end of harvest ; and 
she was certain it would be impossible for her to survive 
undelivered till Christmas. The harvest, however, was 



SOUTHCOTTIANS. 



357 



ended, and Christmas came, without the accomplishment 
of her predictions. 

December 27th, she died, and the symptoms were so de- 
cisive, that her disciples had no hope but in her resurrec- 
tion. At the end, however, of four days and nights, the 
body appeared discolored, and began to exhibit signs of 
approaching putrefaction. She was then opened, in the 
presence of fifteen medical gentlemen, among whom were 
Dr. Sims and Dr. Reece, Mr. Want and Mr. Matthias. It 
was now demonstrated that she was not pregnant ; and 
that her complaints arose from bile and flatulency ; from 
indulgence, and want of exercise. 

In estimating her character since her death, Dr. Reece, 
who thought favorably of her while living, now charges her 
with deceit, and with attempting to impose on him ; but 
thinks she would have made some confession of the cheat, 
but for her credulous attendants. " Finding herself (she 
said) gradually dying, she could not but consider her in- 
spiration and prophecies as delusion." But one of her 
disciples replied : " Mother, we know that you are a favored 
woman of God, and that you will produce the promised 
child ; and whatever you may say to the contrary, will not 
diminish our faith." 

Mr. Matthias, another of her medical attendants, on con- 
trasting her character with the ancient prophets, who were 
holy, devout, and self-denying characters, remarks, that 
4 6 Joanna on all occasions sought publicity. I could never 
learn (says he) that she either watched, fasted, or prayed. 
On the contrary, she passed much of her time in bed, in 
downy indolence; ate much, and often; and prayed — 
never. She loyed to lodge delicately, and feast luxu- 
riously." 

The death of the prophetess, under circumstances that 
so completely disproved her mission, might very naturally 



358 



SO CINIANS. 



be supposed to terminate the delusion of her followers ; but 
it did no such thing. As if determined to be deceived, 
they still flattered themselves that in some way or other 
she would again appear with the expected Shiloh. 

A considerable number of this sect appears to have re- 
mained in Devonshire, where (as above stated) Joanna had 
resided. They separated, not only from the established 
church, but from all other religious communities, and are 
said, in one instance, almost to have strangled one woman 
who opposed them. 



SOCINIANS. 

The Socinians are so called from Faustus Socinus, who 
died in Poland in 1604. There were two who bore the 
name Socinus, uncle and nephew, and both disseminated 
the same doctrine ; but it is the nephew who is generally 
considered as the founder of this sect. They maintain 
" that Jesus Christ was a mere man, who had no existence 
before he was conceived by the Virgin Mary; that the 
Holy Ghost is no distinct person ; but that the Father is 
truly and properly God. They own that the name of God 
is given in the Holy Scriptures to Jesus Christ, but con- 
tend that it is only a deputed title, which, however, invests 
him with a great authority over all created beings. They 
deny the doctrines of satisfaction and imputed righteous- 
ness, and say that Christ only preached the truth to man- 
kind, set before them in himself an example of heroic 
virtue, and sealed his doctrines with his blood. Original 
sin and absolute predestination they esteem scholastic chi- 
meras. Some of them likewise maintain the sleep of the 



SOCINIANS. 



359 



soul, which, they say, becomes insensible at death, and is 
raised again with the body at the resurrection, when the 
good shall be established in the possession of eternal feli- 
city, while the wicked shall be consigned to a fire that will 
not torment them eternally, but for a certain duration pro- 
portioned to their demerits." 

There is some difference, however, between ancient and 
modern Socinians. The latter, indignant at the name 
Socinian, have appropriated to themselves that of Unita- 
rians, and reject the notions of a miraculous conception 
and the worship of Christ ; both which were held by Soci- 
nus. Dr. Priestley has labored hard in attempting to de- 
fend this doctrine of the Unitarians ; but Dr. Horsley, 
Bishop of Rochester, has ably refuted the doctor' in his 
Theological Tracts, which are worthy the perusal of every 
Christian, and especially every candidate for the ministry. 

Dr. Price agreed with the Socinians in the main, yet his 
system was somewhat different. He believed in the pre- 
existence of Chri'st, and likewise that he was more than a 
human being ; and took upon him human nature for a 
higher purpose than merely revealing to mankind the will 
of God, and instructing them in their duty and in the doc- 
trines of religion. 

The Socinians flourished greatly in Poland about the 
year 1551 ; and J. Siemienius, palatine of Podolia, built 
purposely for their use the city of Racow. A famous 
catechism was published, called the Racovian Catechism ; 
and their most able writers are known by the title of the 
Polones Fratres, or Polonian Brethren. Their writings 
were republished together, in the year 1656, in one great 
collection, consisting of six volumes in folio, under the title 
of Bibliotheca Fratrum. 



360 



SANDEMANIANS. 



SANDEMANIANS. 

The Sandemanians are a sect that originated in Scot- 
land about the year 1728, where it is, at this time, distin- 
guished by the name of Glassitcs, after its founder, Mr. 
John Glass, who was a minister of the established church 
in that kingdom ; but, being charged with a design of sub- 
verting the national covenant, and sapping the foundation 
of all national establislrments, by maintaining that the 
kingdom of Christ is not of this tvorld, was expelled from 
the synod by the Church of Scotland. His sentiments 
are fully explained in a tract, published at that time, enti- 
tled " The Testimony of the King of Martyrs," and pre- 
served in the first volume of his works. In consequence 
of Mr. Glass' expulsion, his adherents formed themselves 
into churches, conformable, in their institution and disci- 
pline, to what they apprehended to be the plan of the first 
churches recorded in the New Testament. Soon after the 
year 1755, Mr. Robert Sandeman, an elder in one of these 
churches in Scotland, published a scries of letters addressed 
to Mr. Hervey, occasioned by his Theron and Aspasia, in 
which he endeavors to show that his notion of faith is con- 
tradictory to the Scripture account of it, and could only 
serve to lead men, professedly holding the doctrines called 
Calvinistic, to establish their own righteousness upon their 
frames, feelings, and acts of faith. In these letters Mr. 
Sandeman attempts to prove that justifying faith is no 
more than a simple belief of the truth, or the divine testi- 
mony passively received by the understanding ; and that 
this divine testimony carries in itself sufficient ground of 
hope to every one who believes it, without anything 



SANDEMANIANS. 



361 



wrought in us, or done by us, to give it a particular direc- 
tion to ourselves. 

Some of the popular preachers, as they were called, had 
taught that it was of the essence of faith to believe that 
Christ is ours ; but Mr. Sandeman contended that that 
which is believed in true faith is the truth, and what would 
have been the truth, though we had never believed it. 
They dealt largely in calls and invitations to repent and 
believe in Christ in order to forgiveness ; but he rejects 
the whole of them, maintaining that the gospel contained 
no offer but that of evidence, and that it was merely a 
record or testimony to be credited. They had taught that 
though acceptance with God, which included the forgive- 
ness of sins, was merely on account of the imputed right- 
eousness of Christ, yet that no one was accepted of God, 
nor forgiven, till he repented of his sin, and received 
Christ as the only Saviour ; but he insists that there is 
acceptance with God through Christ for sinners, while 
such, or before "any act, exercise, or exertion of their 
minds whatsoever;" consequently before repentance; and 
that " a passive belief of this quiets the guilty conscience, 
begets hope, and so lays the foundation for love." It is 
by this passive belief of the truth that we, according to 
Mr. Sandeman, are justified, and that boasting is excluded. 
If any act, exercise, or exertion of the mind were neces- 
sary to our being accepted of God, he conceives there 
would be whereof to glory ; and justification by faith could 
not be opposed, as it is in Rom. iv. 4, 6, to justification by 
works. 

The authors to whom Mr. Sandeman refers, under the 
title of ''popular preachers," are Flavel, Boston, Guthrie, 
the Erskines, etc., whom he has treated with acrimony and 
contempt. "I would be far," says he, "from refusing 
even to the popular preachers themselves what they so 
31 



362 



SAND EM ANIAN S. 



much grudge to others — the benefit of the one instance of 
a hardened sinner finding mercy at last ; for I know of no 
sinners more hardened, none greater destroyers of man- 
kind, than they." There have not been wanting writers, 
however, who have vindicated these ministers from his in- 
vectives and have endeavored to show that Mr. Sandeman's 
notion of faith, by excluding all exercise or concurrence 
of the will with the gospel way of salvation, confounds 
the faith of devils with that of Christians, and so is calcu- 
lated to deceive the souls of men. It has also been ob- 
served, that though Mr. Sandeman admits of the acts of 
faith and love as fruits of believing the truth, yet, " all his 
godliness consisting (as he acknowledges to Mr. Pike) in 
love to that which first relieved him," it amounts to nothing 
but self-love. And as self-love is a stranger to all those 
strong affections expressed in the 109th Psalm towards the 
law of God, he cannot admit of them as the language of a 
good man, but applies the whole psalm to Christ, though 
the person speaking acknowledges that " before he was 
afflicted, he went astray." Others have thought that from 
the same principle it were easy to account for the bitter- 
ness, pride, and contempt which distinguish the system ; 
for self-love, say they, is consistent with the greatest aver- 
sion to all beings divine or human, excepting so far as they 
become subservient to us. 

The chief opinion and practices in which this sect differs 
from other Christians, are their weekly administration of 
the Lord's Supper ; their love feasts, of which every mem- 
ber is not only allowed but required to partake, and which 
consist of their dining together at each other's houses in 
the interval between the morning and afternoon service. 
Their kiss of charity used on this occasion at the admis- 
sion of a new member, and at other times when they deem 
it necessary and proper ; their weekly collection before 



SANDEMANIANS. 



363 



the Lord's Supper, for the support of the poor, and de- 
fraying other expenses ; mutual exhortation ; abstinence 
from blood and things strangled; washing each other's 
feet, when, as a deed of mercy, it might be an expression 
of love, the precept concerning which, as well as other 
precepts, they understand literally ; community of goods, 
so far as that every one is to consider all that he has in 
his possession and power liable to the calls of the poor and 
the church ; and the unlawfulness of laying up treasures 
upon earth, by setting them apart for any distant, future, 
and uncertain use. They allow of public and private di- 
versions, so far as they are unconnected with circumstances 
really sinful ; but apprehending a lot to be sacred, disap- 
prove of lotteries, playing at cards, dice, etc. 

They maintain a plurality of elders, pastors or bishops, 
in each church ; and the necessity of the presence of two 
elders in every act of discipline, and at the administration 
of the Lord's Supper. 

In the choice of these elders, want of learning, and 
engagement in trade, are no sufficient objection, if quali- 
fied according to the instructions given to Timothy and 
Titus ; but second marriages disqualify for the office ; and 
they are ordained by prayer and fasting, imposition of 
hands, and giving the right hand of fellowship. 

In their discipline they are strict and severe, and think 
themselves obliged to separate from the communion and 
worship of all such religious societies as appear to them 
not to profess the simple truth for their only ground of 
hope, and who do not walk in obedience to it. We shall 
only add, that in every transaction they esteem unanimity 
to be absolutely necessary. 

In the year 1764, Mr. Sandeman, having accepted an 
invitation from some persons in America, who had read 
his writings and professed a strong attachment to them, to 



364 



NECESSARIANS. 



come and settle among them, sailed for New England. 
There is reason to believe that he was much disappointed 
in the persons who had invited him over, and in the expec- 
tations he had formed generally respecting America. 
Dissensions began to arise, soon after his arrival, between 
the colonies and mother country. Mr. Sandeman's prin- 
ciples led him to avow the most implicit allegiance to the 
latter, which rendered him obnoxious to the colonists ; his 
days were imbittered ; his prospects of usefulness in a 
great measure blighted ; and, after collecting a few small 
societies, he ended his life at Danbury, in Connecticut, 
Fairfield County, in the year 1771. Since his death, 
there has appeared from his pen, " The Honor of Mar- 
riage opposed to all Impurities;" "An Essay on Solomon's 
Song;" " On the Sign of the Prophet Jonah," etc., etc., 
all of which may be read with profit. 



NECESSARIANS. 

Necessarians, an appellation which may be given to 
all who maintain that moral agents act from necessity. 

Necessity signifies whatever is done by a cause or 
power that is irresistible, in which sense it is opposed to 
freedom. Man is a necessary agent, if all his actions be 
so determined by the causes preceding each action, that 
not one past action could possibly not have come to pass, 
or have been otherwise than it hath been, nor one future 
action can possibly not come to pass, or be otherwise than 
it shall be. On the other hand, it is asserted that he is a 
free agent, if he be able, at any time, under the causes 
and circumstances he then is, to do different things ; or, 



NECESSARIANS. 365 

in other words, if he he not unavoidably determined in 
every point of time by the circumstances he is in, and the 
causes he is under, to do any one thing he does, and not 
possibly to do any other thing. Whether man is a neces- 
sary or a free agent, is a question which has been debated 
by writers of the first eminence. Hobbes, Collins, Hume, 
Leibnitz, Kaims, Hartley, Priestley, Edwards, Crombie, 
Toplady, and Belsham, have written on the side of neces- 
sity ; while Clarke, King, Law, Reid, Butler, Price, 
Bryant, Wollaston, Horsley, Beattie, Gregory, and But- 
terworth, have written against it. To state all their argu- 
ments in this place, would take up too much room ; suffice 
it to say, that the Anti-necessarians suppose that the doc- 
trine of necessity charges God as the author of sin ; that 
it takes away the freedom of the will, renders man unac- 
countable, makes sin to be no evil, and morality or virtue 
to be no good ; precludes the use of means, and is of the 
most gloomy tendency. The Necessarians deny these 
to be legitimate consequences, and observe that the Deity 
acts no more immorally in decreeing vicious actions, than 
in permitting all those irregularities, which he could so 
easily have prevented. The difficulty is the same on each 
hypothesis. All necessity, say they, doth not take away 
freedom. The actions of a man may be at one and the 
same time free and necessary too. It was infallibly cer- 
tain that Judas would betray Christ, yet he did it volun- 
tarily. Jesus Christ necessarily became a man, and died, 
yet he acted freely. A good man doth naturally and 
necessarily love his children, yet voluntarily. It is part 
of the happiness of the blessed to love God unchangeably, 
yet freely, for it would not be their happiness if done by 
compulsion. Nor does it, says the Necessarian, render 
man unaccountable, since the Divine Being does no injury 
to his rational faculties ; and man, as his creature, is 
31* 



366 



NECESSARIANS. 



answerable to him ; besides, lie has a right to do what he 
will with his own. That necessity doth not render actions 
less morally good, is evident ; for if necessary virtue be 
neither moral nor praiseworthy, it will follow that God 
himself is not a moral being, because he is a necessary 
one ; and the obedience of Christ cannot be good, because 
it was necessary. Further, say they, necessity does not 
preclude the use of means ; for means are no less appointed 
than the end. It was ordained that Christ should be 
delivered up to death ; but he could not have been betrayed 
without a betrayer, nor crucified without crucifiers. That 
it is not a gloomy doctrine, they allege, because nothing 
can be more consolatory than to believe that all things are 
under the direction of an all-wise Being ; that his kingdom 
ruleth over all, and that he doth all things well. So far 
from its being inimical to happiness, they suppose there 
can be no solid true happiness without the belief of it ; 
that it inspires gratitude, excites confidence, teaches 
resignation, produces humility, and draws the soul to God. 
It is also observed, that to deny necessity is to deny the 
foreknowledge of God, and to wrest the sceptre from the 
hand of the Creator, and to place that capricious and 
undefinable principle — the self-determining power of man 
— upon the throne of the universe. Beside, say they, the 
Scripture places the doctrine beyond all doubt, Job xxiii. 
13, 14, ; xxxiv. 29 ; Prov. xvi. 4 ; Is. xlv. 7 ; Acts xiii. 48; 
Eph. i. 11 ; 1 Thess. iii. 3 ; Matt. x. 29, 30, xviii. 7 ; Luke 
xxiv. 26 ; John vi. 37. 



LOLLARDS. 



367 



LOLLAKDS. 

The Lollards were a religious sect, differing in many 
points from the Church of Rome, which arose in Germany 
about the beginning of the fourteenth century ; so called, 
as many writers have imagined, from Walter Lollard, who 
began to dogmatize in 1315, and was burned at Cologne ; 
though others think that Lollard was no surname, but 
merely a term of reproach applied to all heretics who con- 
cealed the poison of error under the appearance of piety. 

The monk of Canterbury derives the origin of the word 
lollard among us from lolium, "a tare," as if the Lollards 
were the tares sown in Christ's vineyard. Abelly says, 
that the word signifies "praising God," from the German 
loben, "to praise," and herr, "lord;" because the Lollards 
employed themselves in travelling about from place to 
place, singing psalms and hymns. Others, much to the 
same purpose, derive lollhard, lulliard, or lollert, lullert, as 
it was written by the ancient Germans, from the old 
German word, hdlen, lollen, or lallen, and the termination 
hard, with which many of the High Dutch words end. 
Lollen signifies, "to sing with a low voice," and therefore 
lollard is a singer, or one who frequently sings ; and in 
the vulgar tongue of the Germans it denotes a person who 
is continually praising God with a song, or singing hymns 
to his honor. 

The Alexians or Cellites were called Lollards, because 
they were public singers, who made it their business to 
inter the bodies of those who died of the plague, and sang 
a dirge over them in a mournful and indistinct tone, as 
they carried them to the grave. The name was after- 



368 



LOLLARDS. 



wards assumed by persons that dishonored it ; for we find 
among those Lollards who made extraordinary pretences 
to religion, and spent the greatest part of their time in 
meditation, prayer, and such acts of piety, there were 
many abominable hypocrites, who entertained the most 
ridiculous opinions, and concealed the most enormous vices 
under the specious mask of this extraordinary profession. 
Many injurious aspersions were therefore propagated 
against those who assumed this name by the priests and 
monks ; so that, by degrees, any person who covered 
heresies or crimes under the appearance of piety was called 
a Lollard. Thus the name was not used to denote any 
one particular sect, but was formerly common to all persons 
or sects who were supposed to be guilty of impiety towards 
God or the church, under an external profession of great 
piety. However, many societies, consisting both of men 
and women, under the name of Lollards, were formed in 
most parts of Germany and Flanders, and were supported 
partly by their manual labors, and partly by the charitable 
donations of pious persons. The magistrates and inhabi- 
tants of the towns where these brethren and sisters resided, 
gave them particular marks of favor and protection, on 
account of their great usefulness to the sick and needy. 
They were thus supported against their malignant rivals, 
and obtained many papal constitutions, by which their 
institute was confirmed, their persons exempted from the 
cognizance of the inquisitor, and subjected entirely to the 
jurisdiction of the bishops ; but as these measures were 
insufficient to secure them from molestation, Charles, duke 
of Burgundy, in the year 1472, obtained a solemn bull 
from pope Sextus IV., ordering that the Cellites or Lol- 
lards should be ranked among the religious orders, and 
delivered from the jurisdiction of the bishops. And pope 
Julius II. granted them still greater privileges, in the year 



JESUITS . 



369 



1506. Mosheim informs us, that many societies of this 
kind are still subsisting at Cologne, and in the cities of 
Flanders, though they have evidently departed from their 
ancient rules. 

Lollard and his followers rejected the sacrifice of the 
mass, extreme unction, and penances for sin ; arguing that 
Christ's sufferings were sufficient. He is likewise said to 
have set aside baptism, as a thing of no effect ; and re- 
pentance as not absolutely necessary, &c. In England, 
the followers of Wickliffe were called, by way of reproach, 
Lollards, from the supposition that there was some affinity 
between some of their tenets ; though others are of opinion 
that the English Lollards came from Germany. 



JESUITS. 

Jesuits, or the Society of Jesus, a famous religious 
order of the Roman Church, founded by Ignatius Loyola, 
a Spanish knight, in the sixteenth century. The plan 
which this fanatic formed of its constitution and laws, was 
suggested, as he gave out, by the immediate inspiration 
of Heaven. But, notwithstanding this high pretension, his 
design met at first with violent opposition. The Pope, to 
whom Loyola had applied for the sanction of his authority 
to confirm the institution, referred his petition to a com- 
mittee of cardinals. They represented the establishment 
to be unnecessary as well as dangerous, and Paul refused 
to grant his approbation of it. At last, Loyola removed 
all his scruples, by an offer which it was impossible for any 
Pope to resist. He proposed that, besides the three vows 

Y 



370 



JESUITS. 



of poverty, of chastity, and of monastic obedience, which 
are common to all the orders of regulars, the members of 
his society should take a fourth vow of obedience to the 
Pope, binding themselves to go whithersoever he should 
command for the service of religion, and without requiring 
anything from the Holy See for their support. At a time 
when the Papal authority had received such a shock by 
the revolt of so many nations from the Romish Church, at 
a time when every part of the popish system was attacked 
with so much violence and success, the acquisition of a 
body of men, thus peculiarly devoted to the sec of Home, 
and whom it might set in opposition to all its enemies, was 
an object of the highest consequence. Paul, instantly per- 
ceiving this, confirmed the institution of the Jesuits by his 
bull, granted the most ample privileges to the members 
of the society, and appointed Loyola to be the first general 
of the order. The event fully justified Paul's discernment 
in expecting such beneficial consequences to the see of 
Rome from this institution. In less than half a century, 
the society obtained establishments in every country that 
adhered to the Roman Catholic Church ; its power and 
wealth increased amazingly ; the number of its members 
became great ; their character as well as accomplishments 
were still greater ; and the Jesuits were celebrated by the 
friends and dreaded by the enemies of the Romish faith, 
as the most able and enterprising order in the church. 

2. Jesuits, object of the Order of. — The primary object 
of almost all the monastic orders is to separate men from the 
world, and from any concern in its affairs. In the solitude 
and silence of the cloister, the monk is called to work out his 
salvation by extraordinary acts of mortification and piety. 
He is dead to the world, and ought not to mingle in its 
transactions. He can be of no benefit to mankind but by 
his example and by his prayers. On the contrary, the 



JESUITS. 



371 



Jesuits are taught to consider themselves as formed for 
action. They are chosen soldiers, bound to exert them- 
selves continually in the service of God, and of the Pope, 
his vicar on earth. Whatever tends to instruct the igno- 
rant, whatever can be of use to reclaim or oppose the ene- 
mies of the Holy See, is their proper object. That they 
may have full leisure for this active service, they are totally 
exempted from those functions, the performance of which 
is the chief business of other monks. They appear in no 
processions ; they practise no rigorous austerities ; they do 
not consume one-half of their time in the repetition of 
tedious offices ; but they are required to attend to all the 
transactions of the world, on account of the influence which 
these may have upon religion : they are directed to study 
the disposition of persons in high rank, and to cultivate 
their friendship ; and by the very constitution and genius 
of the order, a spirit of action and intrigue is infused into 
all its members. 

3. Jesuits, 'peculiarities of their policy and government. 
— Other orders are to be considered as voluntary associa- 
tions, in which, whatever affects the whole body, is regu- 
lated by the common suffrage of all its members.. But 
Loyola, full of the ideas of implicit obedience, which he 
had derived from his military profession, appointed that 
the government of his order should be purely monarchical. 
A general chosen for life, by deputies from the several 
provinces, possessed power that was supreme and inde- 
pendent, extending to every person and to every case. To 
his commands they were required to yield not only outward 
obedience, but to resign up to him the inclinations of their 
own wills, and the sentiments of their own understandings. 
Such a singular form of policy could not fail to impress its 
character on all the members of the order, and to give a 
peculiar force to all its operations. There has not been, 



372 



JESUITS. 



perhaps, in the annals of mankind, any example of such a 
perfect despotism exercised, not over monks shut up in the 
cells of a convent, but over men dispersed among all the 
nations of the earth. As the constitutions of the order 
vest in the general such absolute dominion over all its 
members, they carefully provide for his being perfectly in- 
formed with respect to the character and abilities of his 
subjects. Every novice who offers himself for a candidate 
for entering into the order, is obliged to manifest his con- 
science to the superior, or a person appointed by him ; and 
is required to confess not only his sins and defects, but to 
discover the inclinations, the passions, and the bent of the 
BOuL This manifestation must be renewed every six months. 
Each member is directed to observe the words and actions 
of the novices, and they are bound to disclose everything of 
importance concerning them to the superior. In order that 
the scrutiny into their character may be as complete as 
possible, a long noviciate must expire, during which they 
pass through the several gradations of rank in the society; 
and they must have attained the full age of thirty-three 
years before they can be admitted to take the final vows 
by which they become professed members. By these various 
methods, the superiors, under whose immediate inspection 
the novices are placed, acquire a thorough knowledge of 
their disposition and talents ; and the general, by examin- 
ing the registers kept for this purpose, is enabled to choose 
the instruments which his absolute power can employ in 
any service for which he thinks meet to destine them. 

4. Jesuits, progress of the power and influence of. — As 
it was the professed intention of this order to labor with 
unwearied zeal in promoting the salvation of men, this en- 
gaged, them, of course, in many active functions. From 
their first institution, they considered the education of youth 
as their peculiar province : they aimed at being spiritual 



Jesuits. 373 

guides and confessors ; they preached frequently, in order 
to instruct the people ; they set out as missionaries to con- 
vert unbelieving nations. Before the expiration of the six- 
teenth century, they had obtained the chief direction of the 
education of youth in every Catholic country in Europe. 
They had become the confessors of almost all its monarchs ; 
a function of no small importance in any reign, but, under 
a weak prince, superior to that of minister. They were 
the spiritual guides of almost every person eminent for 
rank or power ; they possessed the highest degree of confi- 
dence and interest with the papal court, as the most zealous 
and able champions for its authority ; they possessed, at 
different periods, the direction of the most considerable 
courts in Europe ; they mingled in all affairs, and took part 
in every intrigue and revolution. But while they thus 
advanced in power, they increased also in wealth : various 
expedients were devised for eluding the obligation of the vow 
of poverty. Besides the sources of wealth common to all 
the regular clergy, the Jesuits possessed one which was 
peculiar to themselves. Under the pretext of promoting 
the success of their missions, and of facilitating the sup- 
port of their missionaries, they obtained a special license 
from the court of Borne, to trade with the nations which 
they labored to convert ; in consequence of this, they en- 
gaged in an extensive and lucrative commerce, both in the 
East and West Indies ; they opened warehouses in different 
parts of Europe, in which they vended their commodities. 
Not satisfied with trade alone, they imitated the example 
of other commercial societies, and aimed at obtaining set- 
tlements. They acquired possession, accordingly, of the 
large and fertile province of Paraguay, which stretches 
across the southern continent of America, from the bottom 
of the mountains of Potosi to the confines of the Spanish 
and Portuguese settlements on the banks of the river De la 
32 



374 



JESUITS. 



Plata. Here, indeed, it must be confessed, they were of 
service : they found the inhabitants in a state little differ- 
ent from that which takes place among men when they first 
begin to unite together ; strangers to the arts ; subsisting 
precariously by hunting or fishing ; and hardly acquainted 
with the first principles of subordination and government. 
The Jesuits set themselves to instruct and civilize these 
savages : they taught them to cultivate the ground, build 
houses, and brought them to live together in villages, &c. 
They made them taste the sweets of society, and trained 
thorn to arts and manufactures. Such was their power 
over them, that a few Jesuits presided over some hundred 
thousand Indians. But even in this meritorious effort of 
the Jesuits for the good of mankind, the genius and spirit 
of their order was discernible : they plainly aimed at esta- 
blishing in Paraguay an independent empire, subject to the 
society alone, and which, by the superior excellence of its 
constitution and police, could scarcely have failed to extend 
its dominion over all the southern continent of America. 
With this view, in order to prevent the Spaniards and Por- 
tuguese in the adjacent settlements from acquiring any 
dangerous influence over the people within the limits of the 
province subject to the society, the Jesuits endeavored to 
inspire the Indians with hatred and contempt of these na- 
tions ; they cut off all intercourse between their subjects 
and the Spanish or Portuguese settlements. When they 
were obliged to admit any person in a public character 
from the neighboring governments, they did not permit him 
to have any conversation with their subjects ; and no Indian 
was allowed even to enter the house where these strangers 
resided, unless in the presence of a Jesuit. In order to 
render any communication between them as difficult as pos- 
sible, they industriously avoided giving the Indians any 
knowledge of the Spanish or any other European language; 



JESUITS. 



375 



but encouraged the different tribes which they had civilized 
to acquire a certain dialect of the Indian tongue, and 
labored to make that the universal language throughout 
their dominions. As all these precautions, without military 
force, would have been insufficient to have rendered their 
empire secure and permanent, they instructed their subjects 
in the European art of war, and formed them into bodies 
completely armed, and well disciplined. 

5. Jesuits, pernicious effects of this order on civil so- 
ciety. — Though it must be confessed that the Jesuits culti- 
vated the study of ancient literature, and contributed much 
towards the progress of polite learning ; though they have 
produced eminent masters in every branch of science, and 
can boast of a number of ingenious authors ; yet, unhap- 
pily for mankind, their vast influence has been often ex- 
erted with the most fatal effects. Such was the tendency 
of that discipline observed by the society in forming its 
members, and such the fundamental maxims in its consti- 
tution, that every Jesuit was taught to regard the interest 
of the order as the capital object to which every considera- 
tion was to be sacrificed. As the prosperity of the order 
was intimately connected with the preservation of the papal 
authority, the Jesuits, influenced by the* same principle of 
attachment to the interest of their society, have been the 
most zealous patrons of those doctrines which tend to 
exalt ecclesiastical power on the ruins of civil government. 
They have attributed to the court of Rome a jurisdiction 
as extensive and absolute as was claimed by the most pre- 
sumptuous pontiffs in the dark ages. They have contended 
for the entire independence of ecclesiastics on the civil 
magistrates. They have published such tenets concerning 
the duty of opposing princes who were enemies of the 
Catholic faith, as countenanced the most atrocious crimes, 
and tended to dissolve all the ties which connect subjects 



376 



JESUITS. 



with their rulers. As the order derived both reputation 
and authority from the zeal "with which it stood forth in 
defence of the Romish Church against the attacks of the 
reformers, its members, proud of this distinction, have 
considered it as their peculiar function to combat the 
opinions, and to check the progress of the Protestants. 
They have made use of every art, and have employed 
every weapon against them. They have set themselves 
in opposition to every gentle or tolerating measure in their 
favor. They have incessantly stirred up against them all 
the rage of ecclesiastical and civil persecution. Whoever 
recollects the events which have happened in Europe 
during two centuries, will find that the Jesuits may justly 
be considered as responsible for most of the pernicious 
effects arising from that corrupt and dangerous casuistry, 
from those extravagant tenets concerning ecclesiastical 
power, and from that intolerant spirit which have been the 
disgrace of the Church of Rome throughout that period, 
and which have brought so many calamities upon society. 

6. Jesuits, downfall in Europe. — Such were the laws, 
the policy, and the genius of this formidable order ; of 
which, however, a perfect knowledge has only been attain- 
able of late. Europe had observed for two centuries the 
ambition and power of the order ; but while it felt many 
fatal effects of these, it could not fully discern the causes 
to which they were to be imputed. It was unacquainted 
with many of the singular regulations in the political con- 
stitution or government of the Jesuits, which formed the 
enterprising spirit of intrigue that distinguished its mem- 
bers, and elevated the body itself to such a height of 
power. It was a fundamental maxim with the Jesuits, 
from their first institution, not to publish the rules of their 
order : these they kept concealed as an impenetrable mys- 
tery. They never communicated them to strangers, nor 



JESUITS. 



377 



even to the greater part of their own members ; they re- 
fused to produce them when required by courts of justice ; 
and, by a strange solecism in policy, the civil power in 
different countries authorized or connived at the establish- 
ment of an order of men, whose constitution and laws were 
concealed with a solicitude which alone was a good reason 
for having excluded them. During the prosecutions which 
have been carried on against them in Portugal and France, 
the Jesuits have been so inconsiderate as to produce the 
mysterious volumes of their institute. By the aid of these 
authentic records, the principles of their government may 
be delineated, and the sources of their power investigated, 
with a degree of certainty and precision which, previous 
to that event, it was impossible to attain. 

The pernicious effects of the spirit and constitution of 
this order rendered it early obnoxious to some of the 
principal powers in Europe, and gradually brought on its 
downfall. There is a remarkable passage in a sermon 
preached at Dublin by Archbishop Brown, so long ago as 
the year 1551, and which may be considered as almost 
prophetic. It is as follows: "But there are a new frater- 
nity of late sprung up, who call themselves Jesuits, which 
will deceive many, much after the Scribes and Pharisees' 
manner. Amongst the Jews they shall strive to abolish 
the truth, and shall come very near to do it. For these 
sorts will turn themselves into several forms ; with the 
heathen, a heathenist ; with the atheist, an atheist ; with 
the Jews, a Jew ; with the reformers, a reformade ; pur- 
posely to know your intentions, your minds, your hearts, 
and your inclinations, and thereby bring you at last to be 
like the fool that said in his heart, there was no God. 
These shall be spread over the whole world, shall be ad- 
mitted into the councils of princes, and they never the 
wiser ; charming of them, yea, making your princes reveal 
32* 



378 



HOPKINSIANS. 



their hearts, and the secrets therein, and yet they not 
perceive it ; which will happen from falling from the law 
of God, by neglect of fulfilling the law of God, and "by 
winking at their sins ; yet, in the end, God, to justify his 
law, shall suddenly cut off this society, even by the hand 
of those who have most succored them, and made use of 
them ; so that at the end they shall become odious to all 
nations. They shall be worse than Jews, having no resting 
place upon earth ; and then shall a Jew have more favor 
than a Jesuit." This singular passage seems to be accom- 
plished. The Emperor Charles V. saw it expedient to 
check their progress in his dominions ; they were expelled 
England by proclamation, 2 James L, in 1(304 ; Venice in 
Tl ; * 1 ; * i - Portugal in 1759; France in 1764: Spain and 
Sicily in 1767 ; and totally suppressed and abolished by 
Pope Clement XIV., in 1773. 

In 1801 the society was restored in Russia by the 
Emperor Paul ; and in 1804, by King Ferdinand, in Sar- 
dinia. In August, 1814, a bull was issued by Pope Pius 
VII., restoring the order to all their former privileges, and 
calling upon all Catholic princes to afford them protection 
and encouragement. 



HOPKINSIANS. 

The Ilopkinsians were so called from the Rev. Samuel 
Hopkins, D. D., an xVmerican divine, who in his sermons 
and tracts has made several additions to the sentiments 
first advanced by the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, late 
president of New Jersey College. 

The following is a summary of the distinguished tenets 



HOPKINS IANS. 



379 



of the Hopkinsians, together with a few of the reasons they 
bring forward in support of their sentiments. 

1. That all true virtue, or real holiness, consists in dis- 
interested benevolence. The object of benevolence is uni- 
versal being, including God and all intelligent creatures. 
It wishes and seeks the good of every individual, so far as 
is consistent with the greatest good of the whole, which is 
comprised in the glory of God and the perfection and hap- 
piness of his kingdom. The law of God is the standard 
of all moral rectitude or holiness. This is reduced into 
love to God, and our neighbor as ourselves, and universal 
good-will comprehends all the love to God, our neighbor 
and ourselves, required in the divine law, and therefore 
must be the whole of holy obedience. Let any serious 
person think what are the particular branches of true piety ; 
when he has viewed each one by itself, he will find that 
disinterested friendly affection is its distinguishing charac- 
teristic. For instance, all the holiness in pious fear, which 
distinguishes it from the fear of the wicked, consists in love. 
Again — holy gratitude is nothing but good- will to God and 
our neighbor, in which we ourselves are included ; and cor- 
respondent affection, excited by a view of the good-will and 
kindness of God. Universal good-will also implies the 
whole of the duty we owe to our neighbor, for justice, truth, 
and faithfulness, are comprised in universal benevolence ; 
so are temperance and chastity. For an undue indulgence 
of our appetites and passions is contrary to benevolence, 
as tending to hurt ourselves or others ; and so opposite to 
the general good, and the divine command, in which all the 
crime of such indulgence consists. In short, all virtue is 
nothing but benevolence acted out in its proper nature and 
perfection ; or love to God and our neighbor, made perfect 
in all its genuine exercises and expressions. 

2. That all sin consists in selfishness. By this is meant 



380 



HOPKINSIANS. 



an interested, selfish affection, by which a person sets him- 
self up as supreme, and the only object of regard ; and 
nothing is good or lovely in his view, unless suited to pro- 
mote his own private interest. This self-love is, in its 
whole nature, and every degree of it, enmity against God: 
it is not subject to the law of God, and is the only affection 
that can oppose it. It is the foundation of all spiritual 
blindness, and therefore the source of all the open idolatry 
in the heathen world, and false religion under the light of 
the Gospel; all this is agreeable to that self-love which 
opposes God's true character. Under the influence of this 
principle, men depart from truth ; it being itself the great- 
est practical lie in nature, as it sets up that which is com- 
paratively nothing above universal existence. Self-love is 
the source of all profaneness and impiety in the world, and 
of all pride and ambition among men, which is nothing but 
selfishness, acted out in this particular way. This is the 
foundation of all covetousness and sensuality, as it blinds 
people's eyes, contracts their hearts, and sinks them down, 
so that they look upon earthly enjoyments as the greatest 
good. This is the source of all falsehood, injustice, and 
oppression, as it excites mankind by undue methods to in- 
vade the property of others. Self-love produces all the 
violent passions ; envy, wrath, clamor, and evil speaking : 
and everything contrary to the divine law is briefly com- 
prehended in this fruitful source of all iniquity, self-love. 

3. That there are no promises of regenerating grace 
made to the doings of the unregenerate. For as far as 
men act from self-love, they act from a bad end : for those 
who have no true love to God, really do no duty when they 
attend on the externals of religion. And as the unregene- 
rate act from a selfish principle, they do nothing which is 
commanded : their impenitent doings are wholly opposed 
to repentance and conversion ; therefore not implied in the 



HOPKINSIANS. 



381 



command to repent, &c. ; so far from this, they are alto- 
gether disobedient to the command. Hence it appears 
that there are no promises of salvation to the doings of the 
unregenerate. 

4. That the impotency of sinners, with respect to be- 
lieving in Christ, is not natural, but moral ; for it is a plain 
dictate of common sense, that natural impossibility excludes 
all blame. But an unwilling mind is universally considered 
as a crime, and not as an excuse, and is the very thing 
wherein our wickedness consists. That the impotence of 
the sinner is owing to a disaffection of heart, is evident 
from the promises of the Gospel. When any object of good 
is proposed and promised to us upon asking, it clearly 
evinces that there can be no impotence in us with respect 
to obtaining it, beside the disapprobation of the will; 
and that inability which consists in disinclination, never 
renders anything improperly the subject of precept or 
command. 

5. That, in order to faith in Christ, a sinner must approve 
in his heart of the divine conduct, even though God should 
cast him off forever ; which, however, neither implies love 
of misery, nor hatred of happiness. For if the law is good, 
death is due to those who have broken it. The Judge of all 
the earth cannot but do right. It will bring everlasting 
reproach upon his government to spare us, considered 
merely as in ourselves. When this is felt in our hearts, 
and not till then, we shall be prepared to look to the free 
grace of God, through the redemption which is in Christ, 
and to exercise faith in his blood, who is set forth to be a 
'propitiation to declare God's righteousness, that he might 
be just, and yet be the justifier of him who believeth in 
Jesus. 

6. That the infinitely wise and holy God has exerted his 
omnipotent power in such a manner as he purposed should 



382 



HOPKINS IANS. 



be followed with the existence and entrance of moral evil 
into the system. For it must be admitted on all hands, 
that God has a perfect knowledge, foresight, and view of all 
possible existences and events. If that system and scene 
of operation, in which moral evil should never have existed, 
was actually preferred in the divine mind, certainly the 
Deity is infinitely disappointed in the issue of his own ope- 
rations. Nothing can be more dishonorable to God than 
to imagine that the system which is actually formed by the 
divine hand, and which was made for his pleasure and 
glory, is yet not the fruit of wise contrivance and design. 

7. That the introduction of sin is, upon the w r hole, for 
the general good. For the wisdom and power of the Deity 
are displayed in carrying on designs of the greatest good; 
and the existence of moral evil has undoubtedly occasioned 
a more full, perfect, and glorious discovery of the infinite 
perfections of the divine nature, than could otherwise have 
been made to the view of creatures. If the extensive mani- 
festations of the pure and holy nature of God, and his in- 
finite aversion to sin, and all his inherent perfections, in 
their genuine fruits and effects, is either itself the greatest 
good, or unnecessarily contains it, it must necessarily follow 
that the introduction of sin is for the greatest good. 

8. That repentance is before faith in Christ. — By this 
is not intended, that repentance is before a speculative 
belief of the being and perfections of God, and of the person 
and character of Christ ; but only that true repentance is 
previous to a saving faith in Christ, in which the believer 
is united to Christ, and entitled to the benefits of his media- 
tion and atonement. That repentance is before faith, in 
this sense, appears from several considerations. 1. As 
repentance and faith respect different objects, so they are 
distinct exercises of the heart ; and therefore one not only 
may, but must be prior to the other. 2. There may be 



HOPKINSIANS. 



383 



genuine repentance of sin "without faith in Christ, but there 
cannot be true faith in Christ without repentance of sin; 
and since repentance is necessary in order to faith in Christ, 
it must necessarily be prior to faith in Christ. 3. John 
the Baptist, Christ and his apostles, taught that repentance 
is before faith. John cried, Repent, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand ; intimating that true repentance was 
necessary in order to embrace the Gospel of the kingdom. 
Christ commanded, Repent ye, and believe the Gospel. And 
Paul preached repentance toward Grod, and faith toward 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

9. That though men became sinners by Adam, according 
to a divine constitution, yet they have and are accountable 
for no sins but personal : for, 1. Adam's act, in eating the 
forbidden fruit, was not the act of his posterity ; therefore 
they did not sin at the same time he did. 2. The sinful- 
ness of that act could not be transferred to them after- 
wards, because the sinfulness of an act can no more be 
transferred from one person to another than an act itself. 
3. Therefore Adam's act, in eating the forbidden fruit, was 
not the cause, but only the occasion of his posterity's being 
sinners. God was pleased to make a constitution, that, if 
Adam remained holy through his state of trial, his poste- 
rity should in consequence be holy also ; but if he sinned, 
his posterity should in consequence be sinners likewise. 
Adam sinned, and now God brings his posterity into the 
world sinners. By Adam's sin we are become sinners, not 
for it ; his sin being only the occasion, not the cause of our 
committing sins. 

10. That though believers are justified through Christ's 
righteousness, yet his righteousness is not transferred to 
them. For, 1. Personal righteousness can no more be 
transferred from one person to another, than personal sin. 
2. If Christ's personal righteousness were transferred to 



384 



ERASTIANS. 



believers, they would be as perfectly holy as Christ ; and 
so stand in no need of forgiveness. 3. But believers arc 
not conscious of having Christ's personal righteousness, but 
feel and bewail much indwelling sin and corruption. 4. 
The Scripture represents believers as receiving only the 
benefits of Christ's righteousness in justification, or their 
being pardoned and accepted for Christ's righteousness' 
sake, and this is the proper Scripture notion of imputation. 
Jonathan's righteousness was imputed to Mcphibosheth, 
when David showed kindness to him for his father Jona- 
than's sake. 

The Ilopkinsians warmly contend for the doctrine of the 
divine decrees, that of particular election, total depravity, 
the special influences of the Spirit of God in regeneration, 
justification by faith alone, the final perseverance of the 
saints, and the consistency between entire freedom and 
absolute dependence ; and therefore claim it as their just 
due, since the world will make distinctions, to be called 
Ilopkinsian Calvinists. 



ERASTIANS. 

The Erastians are so called from Erastus, a German 
divine of the sixteenth century. The pastoral office, 
according to him, was only persuasive, like a professor of 
science over his students, without any power of the keys 
annexed. The Lord's Supper and other ordinances of the 
Gospel were to be free and open to all. The minister 
might dissuade the vicious and unqualified from the com- 
munion ; but might not refuse it, or inflict any kind of 
censure ; the punishment of all offences, either of a civil 
or religious nature, being referred to the civil magistrate. 



DANCERS. 



— DAVIDISTS. 



385 



DANCERS. 

The Dancers were a sect which sprung up about 1373, 
in Flanders, and places about. It was their custom all of 
a sudden to fall a dancing, and, holding each other's hands, 
to continue thereat, till, being suffocated with the extraor- 
dinary violence, they fell down breathless together. 
During these intervals of vehement agitation they pretended 
they were favored with wonderful visions. Like the 
Whippers, they roved from place to place, begging their 
victuals, holding their secret assemblies, and treating the 
priesthood and worship of the church with the utmost con- 
tempt. Thus we find, as Dr. Haweis observes, that the 
French Convulsionists and Welch Jumpers have had pre- 
decessors of the same stamp. There is nothing new under 
the sun. 



DAVIDISTS. 

The Davidists were the adherents of David George, a 
native of Delft, who, in 1525, began to preach a new 
doctrine, publishing himself to be the true Messiah ; and 
that he was sent of God to fill heaven, which was quite 
empty for want of people to deserve it. He is likewise 
said to have denied the existence of angels, good and evil, 
and to have disbelieved the doctrine of a future judgment. 
He rejected marriage with the Adamites ; held with 
Manes, that the soul was not defiled by sin ; and laughed 
at the self-denial so much recommended by Jesus Christ. 
33 z 



386 



COCCEIANS. 



Such were his principal errors. He made his escape from 
Delft, and retired first into Friesland, and then to Basil, 
where he changed his name, assuming that of John Bruck, 
and died in 1556. He left some disciples behind him, to 
whom he promised that he would rise again at the end of 
three years. Nor was he altogether a false prophet 
herein ; for the magistrates of that city being informed, at 
the three years' end, of what he had taught, ordered him 
to be dug up, and burnt, together with his writings, by 
the common hangman. 



COCCEIANS. 

The Cocceians were a denomination which arose in the 
seventeenth century ; so called from John Cocceius, pro- 
fessor of divinity in the university of Leyden. He rep- 
resented the whole history of the Old Testament as a 
mirror, which held forth an accurate view of the transac- 
tions and events that were to happen in the church under 
the dispensation of the New Testament, and unto the end 
of the world. He maintained that by far the greatest 
part of the ancient prophecies foretold Christ's ministry 
and mediation, and the rise, progress, and revolutions of 
the church, not only under the figure of persons and trans- 
actions, but in a literal manner, and by the very sense of 
" the words used in these predictions ; and laid it down as 
a fundamental rule of interpretation, that the words and 
phrases of Scripture are to be understood in every sense 
of which they are susceptible, or, in other words, that they 
signify in effect everything that they can possibly signify. 

Cocceius also taught, that the covenant made between 



COCCEIANS. 



387 



God and the Jewish nation, bj the ministry of Moses, was 
of the same nature as the new covenant, obtained by the 
mediation of Jesus Christ. In consequence of this general 
principle, he maintained that the ten commandments were 
promulgated by Moses, not as a rule of obedience, but as 
a representation of the covenant of grace — that when the 
Jews had provoked the Deity by their various transgres- 
sions, particularly by the worship of the golden calf, the 
severe and servile yoke of the ceremonial law was added 
to the decalogue, as a punishment inflicted on them by the 
Supreme Being in his righteous displeasure — that this 
yoke, which was painful in itself, became doubly so on 
account of its typical signification ; since it admonished 
the Israelites from day to day of the imperfection and 
uncertainty of their state, filled them with anxiety, and 
was a perpetual proof that they had merited the righteous 
displeasure of God, and could not expect, before the coming 
of the Messiah, the entire remission of their iniquities — 
that indeed good men, even under the Mosaic dispensation, 
were immediately after death made partakers of everlasting 
glory ; but that they were nevertheless, during the whole 
course of their lives, far removed from that firm hope and 
assurance of salvation, which rejoices the faithful under 
the dispensation of the Gospel — and that their anxiety 
flowed naturally from this consideration, that their sins, 
though they remained unpunished, were not pardoned; 
because Christ had not as yet offered himself up a sacrifice 
to the Father, to make an entire atonement for them. 



388 



COLLEGIANS. — 



BEREANS. 



COLLEGIANS. 

Collegians, or Collegiants, a sect formed among the 
Arminians and Anabaptists in Holland, about the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century ; so called because of 
their colleges or meetings twice every week, where every 
one, females excepted, has the same liberty of expounding 
the Scriptures, praying, &c. They are said to be all either 
Arians or Socinians ; they never communicate in the col- 
lege, but meet twice a year, from all parts of Holland, at 
Rhinsbergh, (whence they are also called Ilhinsb erg hers) 
a village two miles from Leyden, where they communicate 
together ; admitting every one that presents himself, pro- 
fessing his faith in the divinity of the Holy Scriptures, 
and resolution to live suitably to their precepts and doc- 
trines, without regard to his sect or opinion. They have 
no particular ministers, but each officiates as he is disposed. 
They baptize by immersion. 



BEREANS. 

The Bereans are a sect of Protestant Dissenters from 
the Church of Scotland, who take their title from and pro- 
fess to follow the example of the ancient Bereans, in 
building their system of faith and practice upon the Scrip- 
tures alone, without regard to any human authority what- 
ever. 

As to the origin of this sect, we find that the Bereans 
first assembled as a separate society of Christians, in the 



BEREANS. 



389 



city of Edinburgh, in the autumn of 1773, and soon after 
in the parish of Fettercairn. The opponents of the Bo- 
re an doctrines allege that the new system of faith would 
never have been heard of, had not Mr. Barclay, the founder 
of it, been disappointed of a settlement in the Church of 
Scotland. But the Bereans, in answer to this charge, 
appeal not only to Mr. Barclay's doctrine, uniformly 
preached in the church of Fettercairn, and many other 
places in that neighborhood, for fourteen years before that 
benefice became vacant, but likewise to two different trea- 
tises, containing the same doctrines, published by him 
about ten or twelve years before that period. They ad- 
mit, indeed, that previous to May, 1773, when the general 
assembly, by sustaining the king's presentation in favor 
of Mr. Foote, excluded Mr. Barclay from succeeding to 
the church of Fettercairn (notwithstanding the almost 
unanimous desire of the parishioners), the Bereans had 
not left the established church, nor attempted to erect them- 
selves into a distinct society ; but they add, that this was 
by no means necessary on their part, until by the assem- 
bly's decision they were in danger of being not only de- 
prived of his instructions, but of being scattered as sheep 
without a shepherd. And they add, that it was Mr. Bar- 
clay's open and public avowal, both from the pulpit and 
the press, of those peculiar sentiments which now distin- 
guish the Bereans, that was the first and principal, if not 
the only cause of the opposition set on foot against his 
settlement in Fettercairn. 

The Bereans agree with the great majority of Christians 
respecting the doctrine of the Trinity, which they hold as 
a fundamental article ; and they also agree in a great mea- 
sure with the professed principles of both the established 
churches respecting predestination and election, though 
they allege that these doctrines are not consistently taught 
33* 



390 



BEREANS. 



in either church. But they differ from the majority of all 
sects of Christians in various other important particulars, 
such as, 1. Respecting our knowledge of the Deity. Upon 
this subject they say, the majority of professed Christians 
stumble at the very threshold of revelation ; and, by ad- 
mitting the doctrine of natural religion, natural conscience, 
natural notices, etc., not founded upon revelation, or de- 
rived from it by tradition, they give up the cause of Chris- 
tianity at once to the infidels; who may justly argue, as 
Mr. Paine in fact does in his Age of Reason, that there is 
no occasion for any revelation or word of God, if man can 
discover his nature and perfections from his works alone. 
But this the Bercans argue is beyond the natural powers 
of human reason ; and therefore our knowledge of God is 
from revelation alone, and that without revelation man 
would never have entertained an idea of his existence. 2. 
With regard to faith in Christ, and assurance of salvation 
through his merits, they differ from almost all other sects 
whatsoever. These they reckon inseparable, or rather the 
same, because (say they) " God hath expressly declared, 
he that believeth shall be saved ; and therefore it is not 
only absurd but impious, and in a manner calling God a 
liar, for a man to say, I believe the gospel, but have 
doubts, nevertheless, of my own salvation." With regard 
to the various distinctions and definitions that have been 
given of different kinds of faith, they argue that there is 
nothing incomprehensible or obscure in the meaning of 
this word as used in Scripture ; but that as faith, when 
applied to human testimony, signifies neither more nor less 
than the mere simple belief of that testimony as true, 
upon the authority of the testifier, so, when applied to the 
testimony of God, it signifies precisely " the belief of his 
testimony, and resting upon his veracity alone, without 
any kind of collateral support from concurrence of any 



BEREANS. 



391 



other evidence or testimony whatever." And they insist 
that, as this faith is the gift of God alone, so the person 
to whom it is given is as conscious of possessing it as the 
being to whom God gives life is of being alive ; and there- 
fore he entertains no doubts either of his faith or his con- 
sequent salvation through the merits of Christ, who died 
and rose again for that purpose. In a word, they argue 
that the gospel would not be what it is held forth to be, 
glad tidings of great joy, if it did not bring full personal 
assurance of eternal salvation to the believer; which assu- 
rance, they insist, is the present infallible privilege and 
portion of every individual believer of the gospel. 3. 
Consistently with the above definition of faith, they say 
that the sin against the Holy Ghost, which has alarmed 
and puzzled so many in all ages, is nothing else but unbe- 
lief ; and that the expression " it shall not be forgiven 
neither in this world nor that which is to come/' means 
only that a person dying in infidelity would not be for- 
given, neither under the former dispensation by Moses 
(the then present dispensation, kingdom, or government 
of God), nor under the gospel dispensation which, in re- 
spect of the Mosaic, was a kind of future world or king- 
dom to come. 4. The Bereans interpret a great part of 
the Old Testament prophecies, and in particular the whole 
of the Psalms, excepting such as are merely historical or 
laudatory, to be typical or prophetical of Jesus Christ, his 
sufferings, atonement, mediation, and kingdom ; and they 
esteem it a gross perversion of these Psalms and prophe- 
cies to apply them to the experiences of private Christians. 
In proof of this, they not only urge the words of the apos- 
tle, that no prophecy is of any private interpretation, but 
they insist that the whole of the quotations from the an- 
cient prophecies in the New Testament, and particularly 
those from the Psalms, are expressly applied to Christ. 



392 



BEREANS. 



In tins opinion many other classes of Protestants agree 
with them. 5. Of the ahsolute all-superintending sove- 
reignty of the Almighty, the Bereana entertain the highest 
idea, as well as of the uninterrupted exertion thereof over 
all his works, in heaven, earth, and hell, however unscarch- 
ahle by his creatures. A God without election, they 
argue, or choice in all his works, is a God without exist- 
ence, a mere idol, a nonentity. And to deny God's elec- 
tion, purpose, and express will in all his works, is to make 
him inferior to ourselves. 

As to their practice and discipline, they consider infant 
baptism as a divine ordinance, instituted in the room of 
circumcision ; and think it absurd to suppose that infants, 
who, all agree, are admissible to the kingdom of God in 
heaven, should nevertheless be incapable of being admitted 
into his visible church on earth. They commemorate the 
Lord's Supper generally once a month ; but as the w T ords 
of the institution fix no particular period, they sometimes 
celebrate it oftener, and sometimes at more distant periods, 
as it may suit their general convenience. They meet 
every Lord's day for the purpose of preaching, praying, 
and exhorting to love and good works. With regard to 
admission and exclusion of members, their method is very 
simple : when any person, after hearing the Berean doc- 
trines, professes his belief and assurance of the truths of 
the gospel, and desires to be admitted into their commu- 
nion, he is cheerfully received upon his profession, what- 
ever may have been his former manner of life. But if 
such a one should afterwards draw back from his good 
profession or practice, they first admonish him, and, if 
that has no effect, they leave him to himself. They do 
not think that they have any power to deliver a backslid- 
ing brother to Satan ; that text, and other similar passa- 
ges, such as, " "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 



A G N E T iE . 



393 



bound in heaven," etc., they consider as restricted to the 
apostles, and to the inspired testimony alone, and not to 
be extended to any church on earth, or any number of 
churches t>r of Christians, whether decided by a majority 
of votes, or by unanimous voices. Neither do they think 
themselves authorized, as a Christian church, to inquire 
into each other's political opinions, any more than to exa- 
mine into each other's notions of philosophy. They both 
recommend and practise, as a Christian duty, submission 
to lawful authority ; but they do not think that a man, by 
becoming a Christian, or joining their society, is under 
any obligation by the rules of the gospel to renounce his 
right of private judgment upon matters of public or pri- 
vate importance. Upon all such subjects they allow each 
other to think and act as each may see it his duty ; and 
they require nothing more of the members than a uniform 
and steady profession of the apostolic faith, and a suitable 
walk and conversation. 

It is said that their doctrine has found converts in vari- 
ous places of Scotland, England, and America ; and that 
they have congregations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, 
Stirling, Crieff, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose, Fettercairn, 
Aberdeen, and other towns in Scotland, as well as in Lon- 
don, and various places in England. 



AGNOETjE. 

Agnoet^: (from ayvosw, 44 to be ignorant of,"), a sect 
which appeared about 370. They called in question the 
omniscience of God ; alleging that he knew things past 
only by memory, and things future only by an uncertain 



394 



ALBANENSES. 



prescience. There arose another sect of the same name 
in the sixth century, who followed Themistius, deacon of 
Alexandria. They maintained that Christ was ignorant 
of certain things, and particularly of the time of the day 
of judgment. It is supposed they built their hypothesis 
on that passage in Mark xiii. 32 : — " Of that day and that 
hour knoweth no man ; no, not the angels which are in 
heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." The meaning 
of which most probably is, that this was not known to the 
Messiah himself in his human nature, or by virtue of his 
unction, as any part of the mysteries he was to reveal ; 
for, considering him as God, he could not be ignorant of 
anything. 



ALBANENSES. 

Albaxenses, a denomination which commenced about 
the year 71 Hi. They held, with the Gnostics and Mani- 
cheans, two principles, the one of good and the other of 
evil. They denied the divinity and even the humanity of 
Jesnfl Christ; asserting that he was not truly man, did 
not suffer on the cross, die, rise again, nor really ascend 
into heaven. They rejected the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion, affirmed that the general judgment was past, and that 
hell torments were no other than the evils we feel and 
suffer in this life. They denied free-will, did not admit 
original sin, and never administered baptism to infants. 
They held that a man can give the Holy Spirit of himself, 
and that it is unlawful for a Christian to take an oath. 

This denomination derived their name from the place 
where their spiritual ruler resided. 



LATITUDINARIANS. 



395 



LATITUDINARIANS. 

Latitudinarian, a person not conforming to any par- 
ticular opinion or standard, but of such moderation as to 
suppose that people will be admitted into heaven, although 
of different persuasions. The term was more especially 
applied to those pacific doctors in the seventeenth century, 
who offered themselves as mediators between the more vio- 
lent Episcopalians and the rigid Presbyterians and Inde- 
pendents, respecting the forms of Church government, 
public worship, and certain religious tenets, more espe- 
cially those that were debated between the Arminians and 
Calvinists. The chief leaders of these Latitudinarians 
were Hales and Chillingworth ; but More, Cudworth, Gale, 
Whitchcot, and Tillotson were also among the number. 
These men, although firmly attached to the Church of 
England, did not go so far as to look upon it as of divine 
institution ; and hence they maintained, that those who 
followed other forms of government and worship, were 
not on that account to be excluded from their communion. 
As to the doctrinal part of religion, they took the system 
of Episcopius for their model, and, like him, reduced the 
fundamental doctrines of Christianity to a few points ; and 
by this manner of proceeding they endeavored to show the 
contending parties that they had no reason to oppose each 
other with such animosity and bitterness, since the subjects 
of their debates were matters of an indifferent nature with 
respect to salvation. They met, however, with opposition 
for their pains, and were branded as Atheists and Deists 
by some, and as Socinians by others ; but upon the resto- 
ration of Charles II., they were raised to the first digni- 
ties of the Church, and were held in considerable esteem. 



396 



ORIGEN ISTS. 



ORIGENISTS. 

The Origenists were a denomination which appeared in 
the third century, who derived their opinions from the 
writings of Origen, a presbyter of Alexandria, and a man 
of vast and uncommon abilities, who interpreted the divine 
truths of religion according to the tenor of the Platonic 
philosophy. lie alleged that the source of many evils lies 
in adhering to the literal and external part of Scripture; 
and that the true meaning of the sacred writers was to be 
sought in a mysterious and hidden sense, arising from the 
nature of things themselves. 

The principal tenets ascribed to Origen, together with a 
few of the reasons made use of in their defence, are com- 
prehended in the following summary : — 

1. That there is a pre-existent state of human souls. 
For the nature of the soul is such as to make her capable 
of existing eternally, backward as well as forward, because 
her spiritual essence, as such, makes it impossible that she 
should, either through age or violence, be dissolved; so 
that nothing is wanting to her existence but the good plea- 
sure of him from whom all things proceed. And if, ac- 
cording to the Platonic scheme, we assign the production 
of all things to the exuberant fulness of life in the Deity, 
which, through the blessed necessity of his communicative 
nature, empties itself into all possibilities of being, as into 
so many capable receptacles, we must suppose her exist- 
ence in a sense necessary, and in a degree co-eternal with 
God. 

2. That souls were condemned to animate mortal bodies 
in order to expiate faults they had committed in a pre- 



ORIGENISTS. 



397 



existent state ; for we may be assured, from the infinite 
goodness of their Creator, that they were at first joined 
to the purest matter, and placed in those regions of the 
universe which were most suitable to the purity of essence 
they then possessed. For that the souls of men are an 
order of essentially incorporate spirits, their deep immer- 
sion into terrestrial matter, the modification of all their 
operations by it, and the heavenly body promised in the 
gospel, as the highest perfection of our renewed nature, 
clearly evince. Therefore, if our souls existed before they 
appeared inhabitants of the earth, they were placed in a 
purer element, and enjoyed far greater degrees of happi- 
ness. And certainly He, whose overflowing goodness 
brought them into existence, would not deprive them of 
their felicity, till by their mutability they rendered them- 
selves less pure in the whole extent of their powers, and 
became disposed for the susception of such a degree of 
corporeal life as was exactly answerable to their present 
disposition of spirit. Hence it was necessary that they 
should become terrestrial men. 

3. That the soul of Christ was united to the Word be- 
fore the incarnation. For the Scriptures teach us that 
the soul of the Messiah was created before the beginning 
of the world, Phil. ii. 5, 7. This text must be understood 
of Christ's human soul, because it is unusual to propound 
the Deity as an example of humility in Scripture. Though 
the humanity of Christ was so God-like, he emptied him- 
self of this fulness of life and glory, to take upon him 
the form of a servant. It was this Messiah who conversed 
with the patriarchs under a human form ; it was he who 
appeared to Moses upon the Holy Mount ; it was he who 
spoke to the prophets under a visible appearance ; and it 
is he who will at last come in triumph upon the clouds to 
restore the universe to its primitive splendor and felicity. 
34 



398 



ORIGENISTS. 



4. That at the resurrection of the dead we shall be 
clothed with ethereal bodies. For the elements of our 
terrestrial compositions are such as almost fatally entangle 
us in vice, passion, and misery. The purer the vehicle the 
soul is united with, the more perfect is her life and opera- 
tions. Besides, the Supreme Goodness who made all 
things, assures us he made all things best at first, and 
therefore his recovery of us to our lost happiness (which 
is the design of the gospel) must restore us to our better 
bodies and happier habitations, which is evident from 
1 Cor. xv. 49 ; 2 Cor. v. 1 ; and other texts of Scripture. 

5. That, after long periods of time, the damned shall 
be released from their torments, and restored to a new 
state of probation. For the Deity has such reserves in 
his gracious providence, as will vindicate his sovereign 
goodness and wisdom from all disparagement. Expiatory 
pains are a part of his adorable plan ; for this sharper 
kind of favor has a righteous place in such creatures as 
are by nature mutable. Though sin has extinguished or 
silenced the divine life, yet it has not destroyed the facul- 
ties of reason and understanding, consideration and me- 
mory, which will serve the life which is most powerful. If, 
therefore, the vigorous attraction of the sensual nature be 
abated by a ceaseless pain, these powers may resume the 
sense of a better life and nature. As in the material sys- 
tem there is a gravitation of the less bodies towards the 
greater, there must of necessity be something analogous 
to this in the intellectual system ; and since the spirits 
created by God are emanations and streams from his own 
abyss of being, and as self-existent power must needs sub- 
ject all beings to itself, the Deity could not but impress 
upon her intimate natures and substances a central ten- 
dency towards himself ; an essential principal of re-union 
to their great original. 



PETROB RUSSIANS. 



399 



6. That the earth, after its conflagration, shall become 
habitable again, and be the mansion of men and animals, 
and that in eternal vicissitudes. For it is thus expressed 
in Isaiah : Behold 1 make new heavens and a new earth, 
$c, and in Heb. i. 10, 12, Thou, Lord, in the beginning 
hast laid the foundations of the earth; as a vesture shalt 
thou change them, and they shall be changed, $e. Where 
there is only a change the substance is not destroyed, this 
change being only as that of a garment worn out and de- 
caying. The fashion of the world passes away like a 
turning scene, to exhibit a fresh and new representation 
of things ; and if only the present dress and appearance 
of things go off, the substance is supposed to remain 
entire. 



PETROBRUSSIANS. 

Petrobrussians, a sect founded about the year 1110, 
in Languedoc and Provence, by Peter de Bruys, who made 
the most laudable attempts to reform the abuses and to 
remove the superstitions that disfigured the beautiful sim- 
plicity of the Gospel; though not without a mixture of 
fanaticism. The following tenets were held by him and 
his disciples : — 1. That no persons whatever were to be 
baptized before they were come to the full use of their 
reason. 2. That it was an idle superstition to build 
churches for the service of God, who will accept of a sin- 
cere worship wherever it is offered ; and that, therefore, 
such churches as had already been erected, were to be 
pulled down and destroyed. 3. That the crucifixes, as 
instruments of superstition, deserved the same fate. 4. 
That the real body and blood of Christ were not exhibited 



400 



PAULIANISTS. 



in the eucharist, but were merely represented in that ordi- 
nance. 5. That the oblations, prayers, and good works 
of the living, could be in no respect advantageous to the 
dead. The founder of this sect, after a laborious ministry 
of twenty years, was burnt in the year 1130, by an enraged 
populace set on by the clergy, whose traffic was in danger 
from the enterprising spirit of this new reformer. 



PAULIANISTS. 

The Paulianists were a sect so called from their founder, 
Paulus Samosatenus, a native of Samosata, elected bishop 
of Antioch in 262. His doctrine seems to have amounted 
to this : that the Son and the Holy Ghost exist in God in 
the same manner as the faculties of reason and activity do 
in man ; that Christ was born a mere man ; but that the 
reason or wisdom of the Father descended into him, and 
by him wrought miracles upon earth, and instructed the 
nations ; and, finally, that on account of this union of the 
Divine Word with the man Jesus, Christ might, though 
improperly, be called God. It is also said that he did not 
baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, &c. ; for 
which reason the council of Nice ordered those baptized 
by him to be re-baptized. Being condemned by Dionysius 
Alexandrinus in a council, he abjured his errors to avoid 
deposition ; but soon after he resumed them, and was 
actually deposed by another council in 269. He may be 
considered as the father of the modern Socinians ; and his 
errors are severely condemned by the council of Nice, 
whose creed differs a little from that now used under the 



PAULICIANS. 



401 



same name in the church of England. The creed agreed 
upon by the Nicene fathers with a view to the errors of 
Paulus Samosatenus concludes thus : " But those who say 
there was a time when he was not, and that he was not 
before he was born, the catholic and apostolic church 
anathematize." 



PAULICIANS. 

The Paulicians were a branch of the ancient Manichees, 
so called from their founder, one Paulus, an Armenian, in 
the seventh century, who, with his brother John, both of 
Samosata, formed this sect : though others are of opinion 
that they were thus called from another Paul, an Armenian 
by birth, who lived under the reign of Justinian II, In 
the seventh century, a zealot, called Constantine, revived 
this drooping sect, which had suffered much from the 
violence of its adversaries, and was ready to expire under 
the severity of the imperial edicts, and that zeal with 
which they were carried into execution. The Paulicians, 
however, by their number, and the countenance of the 
emperor Nicephorus, became formidable to all the East. 
But the cruel rage of persecution, which had for some 
years been suspended, broke forth with redoubled violence 
under the reigns of Michael Curopalates, and Leo the 
Armenian, who inflicted capital punishment on such of the 
Paulicians as refused to return into the bosom of the 
church. The empress Theodora, tutoress of the emperor 
Michael, in 845, would oblige them either to be converted, 
or to quit the empire ; upon which several of them were 
put to death, and more retired among the Saracens ; but 
they were neither all exterminated nor banished. 
34* 2a 



402 



PAULICIANS. 



Upon this, they entered into a league with the Saracens, 
and choosing for their chief an officer of the greatest reso- 
lution and valor, whose name was Carbeus, they declared 
against the Greeks a war, which was carried on for fifty 
years with the greatest vehemence and fury. During 
these commotions, some Paulicians, towards the conclusion 
of this century, spread abroad their doctrines among the 
Bulgarians : many of them, either from a principle of zeal 
fur the propagation of their opinions, or from a natural 
desire of flying from the persecution which they suffered 
under the Grecian yoke, retired about the close of the 
eleventh century from Bulgaria and Thrace, and formed 
settlements in other countries. Their first migration was 
into Italy ; whence, in process of time, they sent colonies 
into almost all the other provinces of Europe, and formed 
gradually a considerable number of religious assemblies, 
who adhered to their doctrine, and who were afterwards 
persecuted with the utmost vehemence by the Roman 
pontiffs. In Italy they were called Patarini, from a cer- 
tain place called Pataria, being a part of the city of 
Milan, where they held their assemblies ; and Grathari, or 
Gazari, from Gazaria, or the Lesser Tartary. In France 
they were called Albigenses, though their faith differed 
widely from that of the Albigenses whom Protestant writers 
generally vindicate. The first religious assembly the 
Paulicians had formed in Europe, is said to have been dis- 
covered at Orleans in 1017, under the reign of Robert, 
when many of them were condemned to be burnt alive. 
The ancient Paulicians, according to Photius, expressed 
the utmost abhorrence of Manes and his doctrine. The 
Greek writers comprise their errors under the six follow- 
ing particulars : — 1. They denied that this inferior and 
visible world is the production of the Supreme Being ; and 
they distinguish the Creator of the world and of human 



LIBERTINES. 



403 



bodies from the Most High God, who dwells in the hea- 
vens ; and hence some have been led to conceive that 
they were a branch of the Gnostics rather than of the 
Manichseans. 2. They treated contemptuously the Virgin 
Mary, or, according to the usual manner of speaking 
among the Greeks, they refused to adore and worship her. 
3. They refused to celebrate the institution of the Lord's 
Supper. 4. They loaded the cross of Christ with contempt 
and reproach, by which we are only to understand that 
they refused to follow the absurd and superstitious practice 
of the Greeks, who paid to the pretended wood of the 
cross a certain sort of religious homage. 5. They rejected, 
after the example of the greatest part of the Gnostics, the 
books of the Old Testament, and looked upon the writers 
of that sacred history as inspired by the Creator of this 
world, and not by the Supreme God. 6. They excluded 
presbyters and elders from all part in the administration 
of the church. 



LIBERTINES. 

The Libertines were a religious sect which arose in the 
year 1525, whose principal tenets were, that the Deity was 
the sole operating cause in the mind of man, and the im- 
mediate author of all human actions ; that, consequently, 
the distinctions of good and evil, which had been esta- 
blished with regard to those actions, were false and 
groundless, and that men could not, properly speaking, 
commit sin ; that religion consisted in the union of the 
spirit, or rational soul, with the Supreme Being ; that all 
those who had attained this happy union, by sublime con- 



404 



LIBERTINES. 



templation and elevation of mind, were then allowed to 
indulge, without exception or restraint, their appetites or 
passions ; that all their actions and pursuits were then per- 
fectly innocent; and that, after the death of the body, 
they were to be united to the Deity. They likewise said 
that Jesus Christ was nothing but a mere je ne scai quoi, 
composed of the spirit of God and the opinion of men. 
These maxims occasioned their being called Libertines, 
and the word has been used in an ill sense ever since. 
This sect spread principally in Holland and Brabant. 
Their leaders M ere one Quintin, a Pieard, Fockesius, Ruf- 
fus, and another, called Chopin, who joined with Quintin, 
and became his disciple. They obtained footing in France 
through the favor and protection of Margaret, Queen of 
Navarre, and sister to Francis L, and found patrons in 
several of the reformed churches. 

The Libertines of Geneva were a cabal of rakes rather 
than fanatics ; for they made no pretence to any religious 
system, but pleaded only for the liberty of leading volup- 
tuous and immoral lives. This cabal was composed of a 
certain number of licentious citizens, who could not bear 
the severe discipline of Calvin. There were also among 
them several who were not only notorious for their disso- 
lute and scandalous manner of living, but also for their 
atheistical impiety and contempt of all religion. To this 
odious class belonged one Gruet, who denied the divinity 
of the Christian religion, the immortality of the soul, the 
difference between moral good and evil, and rejected -with 
disdain the doctrines that are held most sacred among 
Christians ; for which impieties he was at last brought be- 
fore the civil tribunal, in the year 1550, and condemned to 
death. 



INGHAMITES. 



405 



INGHAMITES, 

A denomination of Calvinistic Dissenters, who are the 
followers of B. Ingham, Esq., who in the last century was 
a character of great note in the north of England. About 
the year 1735, Mr. Ingham was at Queen's College, with 
Mr. Hervey and other friends, but soon afterwards adopted 
the religious opinions and zeal of Wesley and Whitfield. 
We do not know the cause of his separation from these 
eminent men ; but it seems in a few years afterwards he 
became the leader of numerous societies, distinct from the 
Methodists. They received their members by lot, and 
required them to declare before the church their experi- 
ence, that the whole society might judge of the gracious 
change which had been wrought upon their hearts. It 
happened in a few years, that some individuals who were 
much respected, and who applied for admission, instead of 
speaking of their own attainments, or the comfortable im- 
pression on their minds, which they only considered as 
productive of strife and vainglory, declared their only 
hope was the finished work of Jesus Christ ; as to them- 
selves they were sensible of their own vileness. Such 
confessions as this threw the congregation into some con- 
fusion, which was considerably increased when they found 
that, on their having recourse as usual to the lot, that 
there were votes against their admission, which was consi- 
dered as a rejection from the Lord. On this they were 
led to examine more particularly both their church order 
and doctrines. After this time, Mr. Ingham became much 
more orthodox in his sentiments, and new-modelled his 
churches. The book which he published is in general well 



406 



HATTE MISTS. 



thought of by the Independents. He contends very 
strongly for salvation by the imputation of Christ's right- 
eousness ; and as to doctrine, the chief point wherein the 
Inghamites differ from the Independents is respecting the 
Trinity. The common manner of speaking of the Divine 
Three as distinct persons, they decisively condemn. They 
do not consider a plurality of elders as necessary in a 
church to administer the Lord's Supper. In other respects 
they much esteem the writings of Mr. R. Sandeman. 
Their numbers have not been so numerous since they be- 
came more strict in their public worship. 



HATTEMISTS. 

Tins is the name of a modern Dutch sect, so called 
from Pontian Van llattem, a minister in the province of 
Zealand, towards the close of the last century, who, being 
addicted to the sentiments of Spinosa, was on that account 
degraded from his pastoral office. The Verschorists and 
Hattemiflte resemble each other in their religious systems, 
though they never so entirely agreed as to form one com- 
munion. The founders of these sects deduced from the 
doctrine of absolute decrees a system of fatal and uncon- 
trollable necessity ; they denied the difference between 
moral good and evil, and the corruption of human nature ; 
from whence they farther concluded, that mankind were 
under no sort of obligation to correct their manners, to 
improve their minds, or to obey the divine laws ; that the 
whole of religion consisted not in acting, but in suffering ; 
and that all the precepts of Jesus Christ are reducible to 
this one, that we bear with cheerfulness and patience the 



EUNOMIANS. 



407 



events that happen to us through the divine will, and make 
it our constant and only study to maintain a permanent 
tranquillity of mind. Thus far they agreed; but the 
Hattemists further affirmed, that Christ made no expiation 
for the sins of men by his death ; but had only suggested 
to us, by his mediation, that there was nothing in us that 
could offend the Deity : this, they say, was Christ's man- 
ner of justifying his servants, and presenting them blame- 
less before the tribunal of God. It was one of their dis 
tinguished tenets, that God does not punish men for their 
sins, but by their sins. These two sects, says Mosheim, 
still subsist, though they no longer bear the name of their 
founders. 



EUNOMIANS. 

The Eunomians were a sect in the fourth century. They 
were a branch of Arians, and took their name from Euno- 
mius, bishop of Cyzicus. Cave, in his Historia Literaria, 
vol. i. p. 223, gives the following account of their faith: 
" There is one God, uncreated and without beginning ; who 
has nothing existing before him, for nothing can exist be- 
fore what is uncreated ; nor with him, for what is uncreated 
must be one ; nor in him, for God is a simple and uncom- 
pounded being. This one simple and eternal being is God, 
the creator and ordainer of all things : first, indeed, and 
principally of his only begotten Son ; and then through 
him of all other things. For God begat, created, and made 
the Son only by his direct operation and power, before all 
things, and every other creature ; not producing, however, 
any being like himself, or imparting any of his own proper 



408 



EUCHITES. 



substance to the Son ; for God is immortal, uniform, indi- 
visible ; and therefore cannot communicate any part of his 
own proper substance to another. He alone is unbegotten; 
and it is impossible that any other being should be formed 
of an unbegotten substance. He did not use his own sub- 
stance in begetting the Son, but his will only ; nor did ho 
beget him in the likeness of his substance, but according 
to his own good pleasure ; he then created the Holy Spirit, 
the first and greatest of all spirits, by his own power, in 
deed and operation mediately ; yet by the immediate power 
and operation of the Sun. After the Holy Spirit, he created 
all othe r things, in heaven and in earth, visible and invisi- 
ble, corporeal and incorporeal, mediately by himself, by 
the power and operation of the Son, &c." The reader 
will evidently see how near these tenets are to those of 
Arianism. 



EUCHITES. 

The Euchites, or Euchitoe, were a sect of ancient here- 
tics, who were first formed into a religious body towards 
tho end of the fourth century, though their doctrine and 
discipline subsisted in Syria, Egypt, and other eastern coun- 
tries, before the birth of Christ : they were thus called be- 
cause they prayed without ceasing, imagining that prayer 
alone was sufficient to save them. They were a sort of 
mystics, who imagined, according to the oriental notion, 
that two souls resided in man, the one good and the other 
evil ; and who were zealous in expelling the evil soul or 
demon, and hastening the return of the good Spirit of God 
by contemplation, prayer, and singing of hymns. They 



EBIONITES . 



409 



also embraced opinions nearly resembling the Manichean 
doctrine, and which they derived from the tenets of the 
oriental philosophy. The same denomination was used in 
the twelfth century to denote certain fanatics who infested 
the Greek and Eastern churches, and who were charged 
with believing a double Trinity, rejecting wedlock, abstain- 
ing from flesh, treating with contempt the sacraments of 
baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the various branches 
of external worship, and placing the essence of religion 
solely in external prayer; and maintaining the efficacy of 
perpetual supplications to the Supreme Being for expelling 
an evil being or genius, which dwelt in the breast of every 
mortal. This sect is said to have been founded by a person 
called Lucopetrus, whose chief disciple was named Tychicus. 
By degrees it became a general and invidious appellation 
for persons of eminent piety, and zeal for genuine Chris- 
tianity, who opposed the vicious practices and insolent 
tyranny of the priesthood, much in the same manner as the 
Latins comprehended all the adversaries of the Roman 
pontiff under the general terms of Albigenses and Wal- 
denses. 



EBIONITES, 

The Ebionites were ancient heretics, who rose in the 
church in the very first age thereof, and formed themselves 
into a sect in the second century, denying the divinity of 
Jesus Christ. Origen takes them to have been so called 
from the Hebrew word ehion, which in that languoge sig- 
nifies poor ; because, says he, they were poor in sense and 
wanting understanding. Eusebius, with a view to the same 
etymology, is of opinion they were thus called, as having 
35 



410 



EBIONITES. 



poor thoughts of Jesus Christ, taking him for no more than 
a mere man. It is more probable the Jews gave this ap- 
pellation to the Christians in general out of contempt; 
because, in the first times, there were few but poor people 
that embraced the Christian religion. 

The Ebionitcs were little else than a branch of the Naza- 
reneflj only that they altered and corrupted, in many things, 
the purity of the faith held among the first adherents to 
Christianity. Fur this reason, Origen distinguishes two 
kinds of Ebionitcs in his answer to Celsus : the one believed 
that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin ; and the other, that 
he was born after the manner of other men. The first were 
orthodox to everything, except that to the Christian doc- 
trine they joined the ceremonies of the Jewish law, with the 
Jews, Samaritans, and Nazarenes, together with the tradi- 
tions of the Pharisees. They differed from the Nazarenes, 
however, in several things, chiefly as to what regards the 
authority of the sacred writings; for the Nazarenes re- 
ceived all for Scripture contained in the Jewish canon; 
whereas the Ebionitcs rejected all the prophets, and held 
the very names of David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and 
Ezekicl, in abhorrence. They also rejected all St. Paul's 
epistles, whom they treated with the utmost disrespect. 
They received nothing of the Old Testament but the Pen- 
tateuch. They agreed with the Nazarenes, in using the 
Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, otherwise called the Gospel 
of the twelve apostles ; but they corrupted their copy in 
abundance of places ; and particularly had left out the 
genealogy of our Saviour, which was preserved entire in 
that of the Nazarenes, and even in those used by the 
Corinthians. 

Besides the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, the Ebion- 
ites had adopted several other books under the title of St. 
James, John, and the other apostles ; they also made use 



DONATISTS. 



411 



of the travels of St. Peter, which are supposed to have been 
written by St. Clement ; but had altered them so, that there 
was scarce anything of truth left in them. They even made 
that saint tell a number of falsehoods, the better to autho- 
rize their own practices. 



DONATISTS. 

The Donatists were ancient schismatics, in Africa so 
denominated from their leader, Donatus. They had their 
origin in the year 311, when, in the room of Mensurius, 
who died in that year, on his return to Rome, Cecilian was 
elected bishop of Carthage, and consecrated, without the 
concurrence of the Numidian bishops, by those of Africa 
alone, whom the people refused to acknowledge, and to 
whom they opposed Majorinus, who accordingly was or- 
dained by Donatus, bishop of Casae Nigrse. 

They were condemned in a council held at Rome, two 
years after their separation ; and afterwards in another at 
Aries, the year following ; and again at Milan, before Con- 
stantine the Great, in 316, who deprived them of their 
churches, and sent their seditious bishops into banishment, 
and punished some of them with death. Their cause was 
espoused by another Donatus, called the Great, the prin- 
cipal bishop of that sect, who, with numbers of his follow- 
ers, was exiled by order of Constans. Many of them were 
punished with great severity. However, after the accession 
of Julian to the throne in 362, they were permitted to re- 
turn, and restored to their former liberty. 

Gratian published several edicts against them, and in 377 
deprived them of their churches, and prohibited all their 



412 



DONATISTS. 



assemblies. But, notwithstanding the severities they suf- 
fered, it appears that they had a very considerable number 
of churches towards the close of this century ; but at this 
time they began to decline on account of a schism among 
themselves, occasioned by the election of two bishops in the 
room of Parmcnian, the successor of Donatus : one party 
elected Primian, and were called Primianists ; and an- 
other, Maximinian, and were called Maximinianists. Their 
decline was also precipitated by the zealous opposition of 
St. Augustine, and by the violent measures which were 
pursued against them by order of the emperor Honorius, 
at the .solicitation of two councils held at Carthage, the one 
in I'll, and the other in 411. Many of them were fined, 
their bishops were banished, and some put to death. 

This sect revived and multiplied under the protection 
of the Vandals, who invaded Africa in 427, and took pos- 
session of this province ; but it sunk again under new seve- 
rities, when their empire was overturned, in 534. Never- 
tin less, they remained in a separate body till the close of 
this century, when Gregory, the Roman pontiff, used various 
methods for suppressing them : his zeal succeeded, and there 
are few traces to be found of the Donatists after this pe- 
riod. They were distinguished by other appellations, as 
Ciri-umcelliones, Montenses or Mountaineers, Campetes, 
Rupites, &c. They held three councils, that of Cita in 
Numidia, and two at Carthage. 

The Donatists, it is said, held that baptism conferred out 
of the church, that is, out of their sect, was null ; and 
accordingly they re-baptized those who joined their party 
from other churches, they also re-ordained their ministers. 
Donatus seems likewise to have embraced the doctrine of 
the Arians ; though St. Augustine affirms that the Donatists 
in this point kept clear of the errors of their leader. 



DEISTS. 



413 



DEISTS. 

The Deists are a class of people whose distinguishing 
character it is not to profess any particular form or system 
of religion, but only to acknowledge the existence of a 
God, and to follow the light and law of Nature, rejecting 
revelation and opposing Christianity. The name of Deists 
seems to have been first assumed as the denomination of a 
party, about the middle of the sixteenth century, by some 
gentlemen in France and Italy, who were desirous of thus 
disguising their opposition to Christianity by a more honor- 
able appellation than that of atheists. Viret, an eminent 
reformer, mentions certain persons in his epistle dedica- 
tory, prefixed to the second volume of his Instruction 
Chretienne, published in 1653, who called themselves by a 
new name, that of Deists. These, he tells us, professed 
to believe in God, but showed no regard to Jesus Christ, 
and considered the doctrines of the apostles and evangelists 
as fables and dreams. He adds, that they laughed at all 
religion, though they outwardly conformed to the religion 
of those with whom they lived, or whom they wished to 
please, or feared to offend. Some, he observed, professed 
to believe the immortality of the soul ; others denied both 
this doctrine and that of providence. 

Many of them were considered as persons of acute and 
subtle genius, and took pains in disseminating their notions. 
The Deists hold that, considering the multiplicity of reli- 
gions, the numerous pretences to revelation, and the pre- 
carious arguments generally advanced in proof thereof, 
the best and surest way is to return to the simplicity of 
nature, and the belief of one God; which is the only 
35* 



414 



DEISTS. 



truth agreed to by all nations. They complain that the 
freedom of thinking and reasoning is oppressed under the 
yoke of religion, and that the minds of men are tyrannized 
over by the necessity imposed upon them of believing in- 
conceivable mysteries ; and contend that nothing should 
be required to be assented to or believed but -what their 
reason clearly conceives. 

The distinguishing character of modern Deists is, that 
they discard all pretences to revelation as the effects of 
imposture or enthusiasm. They profess a regard for natu- 
ral religion, though they are far from being agreed in their 
notions concerning it. 

They are classed by some of their own writers into mor- 
tal and immortal Deists — the latter acknowledging a fu- 
ture state, and the former denying it, or representing it as 
very uncertain. Dr. Clarke distinguishes four sorts of 
Deists : 1. Those who pretend to believe the existence of 
an eternal, infinite, independent, intelligent Being, who 
made the world, without concerning himself in the govern- 
ment of it. 2. Those who believe the being and natural 
providence of God, but deny the difference of actions as 
morally good or evil, resolving it into the arbitrary consti- 
tution of human laws; and therefore they suppose that God 
takes no notice of them. With respect to both these classes, 
he observes, that their opinions can consistently terminate 
in nothing but downright atheism. 3. Those who, having 
right apprehensions concerning the nature, attributes, and 
all-governing providence of God, seem also to have some 
notion of his moral perfections ; though they consider 
them as transcendant, and such in nature and degree, that 
we can form no true judgment, nor argue with any cer- 
tainty concerning them ; but they deny the immortality of 
human souls, alleging that men perish at death, and that 
the present life is the whole of human existence. 4. Those 



/ 



DEISTS. 



415 



who believe the existence, perfections, and providence of 
God, the obligations of natural religion, and a state of 
future retribution, on the evidence of the light of Nature, 
■without a divine revelation ; such as these, he says, are 
the only true Deists ; but their principles, he apprehends, 
should lead them to embrace Christianity, and therefore 
he concludes that there is now no consistent scheme of 
Deism in the world. 

The first Deistical writer of any note that appeared in 
England was Herbert, Baron of Cherbury. He lived and 
wrote in the seventeenth century. His book De Veritate 
was first published at Paris, in 1624. This, together with 
his book De Causis Errorum, and his treatise De Religione 
Laid, were afterwards published in London. His cele- 
brated work, De Religione Grentilium, was published at 
Amsterdam, in 1663, in 4to., and in 1700 in 8vo. ; and an 
English translation of it was published at London in 1705. 

As he was one of the first that formed Deism into a 
system, and asserted the sufficiency, universality, and ab- 
solute perfection of natural religion, with a view to discard 
all extraordinary revelation as useless and needless, we 
shall subjoin the five fundamental articles of this universal 
religion. They are these : 1. There is one supreme God. 
2. That he is chiefly to be worshipped. 3. That piety and 
virtue are the principal part of his worship. 4. That we 
must repent of our sins ; and if we do so, God will pardon 
them. 5. That there are rewards for good men and pun- 
ishments for bad men, both here and hereafter. A num- 
ber of advocates have appeared in the same cause ; and 
however they may have differed among themselves, they 
have been agreed in their attempts at invalidating the evi- 
dence and authority of divine revelation. We might men- 
tion Hobbes-, Blount, Toland, Collins, Woolston, Tindal, 
Morgan, Chubb, Lord Bolingbroke, Hume, Gibbon, Paine, 



416 



SUBLAPSARIANS. 



and some add Lord Shaftesbury to the number. Among 
foreigners, Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, and many 
other celebrated French authors, have rendered themselves 
conspicuous by their Deistical writings. "But," as one 
observes, " the friends of Christianity have no reason to 
regret the free and unreserved discussion which their reli- 
gion has undergone. Objections have been stated and 
urged in their full force, and as fully answered ; arguments 
and raillery have been repelled; and the controversy be- 
tween Christians and Deists has called forth a great num- 
ber of excellent writers, who have illustrated both the 
doctrines and evidences of Christianity in a manner that 
will ever reflect honor on their names, and be of lasting 
service to the cause of genuine religion, and the best inte- 
rests of mankind. 



SUBLAPSARIANS. 

S ubl aps. mi tans are those who hold that God permitted 
the first man to fall into transgression, without absolutely 
predetermining his fall ; or that the decree of predestina- 
tion regards man as fallen, by an abuse of that freedom 
which Adam had, into a state in which all were to be left 
to necessary and unavoidable ruin, who were not exempted 
from it by predestination. 



SUPRALAPSARIANS. 



417 



SUPKALAPSARIANS. 

The Supralapsarians are persons who hold that God, 
without any regard to the good or evil works of men, has 
resolved, by an eternal decree, supra lapsum, antecedently 
to any knowledge of the fall of Adam, and independently 
of it, to save some and reject others : or, in other words, 
that God intended to glorify his justice in the condemna- 
tion of some, as well as his mercy in the salvation of others ; 
and for that purpose, decreed that Adam should necessarily 
fall. 

Dr. Gill gives us the following account of Supralapsa- 
rianism. The question which he proposes to discuss, is, 
" Whether men were considered in the mind of God in the 
decree of election as fallen or unfallen, as in the corrupt 
mass through the fall, or in the pure mass of creatureship, 
previous to it, and as to be created ?" There are some who 
think that the latter, so considered, were the objects of elec- 
tion in the divine mind. These are called Supralapsarians, 
though of these some are of opinion that man was consid- 
ered as to be created or creatable, and others as created 
but not fallen. The former seems best, that of the vast 
number of individuals which came up in the divine mind 
whom his power could create, those whom he meant to 
bring into being he designed to glorify himself by them in 
some way or other. The decree of election respecting any 
part of them may be distinguished into the decree of the 
end and the decree of the means. The decree of the end 
respecting some is either subordinate to their eternal hap- 
piness, or ultimate, which is more properly the end, the 
glory of God ; and if both are put together, it is a state 

2 b 



418 



SUPRALAPSARIANS. 



of everlasting communion with God, for the glorifying of the 
riches of his grace. The decree of the means includes the 
decree to create men to permit them to fall, to recover them 
out of it through redemption by Christ, to sanctify them 
by the grace of the Spirit, and completely save them ; and 
which are not to be reckoned as materially many decrees, 
but as making one formal decree ; or they are not to be 
considered as subordinate, but as co-ordinate means, and 
as making up one entire complete medium: for it is not to 
be Bupposed that God decreed to create man, that he might 
permit him to fall, in order to redeem, sanctify, and save 
him ; but he decreed all this that he might glorify his grace, 
mercy, and justice. And in this way of considering the 
decrees of God, they think that they sufficiently obviate 
and remove the slanderous calumny cast upon them with 
respect to the other branch of predestination, which leaves 
men in the same state when others are chosen, and that for 
the glory of God. Which calumny is that, according to 
them, God made man to damn him ; whereas, according to 
their real sentiments, God decreed to make man, and made 
man neither to damn him nor save him, but for his own 
glory, which end is answered in them some way or other. 
Again, they argue that the end is first in view before the 
means, and the decree of the end is, in order of nature, 
before the decree of the means ; and what is first in inten- 
tion, is last in execution. Now, as the glory of God is last 
in execution, it must be first in intention, wherefore men 
must be considered in the decree of the end as not yet 
created and fallen ; since the creation and permission of sin 
belong to the decree of the means, which in order of nature 
is after the decree of the end. And they add to this, that 
if God first decreed to create man, and suffered him to fall, 
and then out of the fall chose some to grace and glory, he 
must decree to create man without an end, which is to make 



SUPRALAPSARIANS. 



419 



God to do what no wise man would ; for when a man is 
about to do anything, he proposes an end, and then con- 
trives and fixes on ways and means to bring about that end. 
They think also that this way of conceiving and speaking 
of these things best expresses the sovereignty of God in 
them, as declared in the 9th of Romans, where he is said 
to will such and such things, for no other reason but because 
he wills them. 

The opponents of this doctrine consider, however, that 
it is attended with insuperable difficulties. We demand, 
say they, an explanation of what they mean by this prin- 
ciple, " God hath made all things for his own glory." If 
they mean that justice requires a creature to devote him- 
self to the worship and glorifying of his Creator, we grant 
it ; if they mean that the attributes of God are displayed 
in all his works, we grant this too ; but if the proposition 
be intended to affirm that God had no other view in creating 
men, so to speak, than his own interest, we deny the pro- 
position, and affirm that God created men for their own 
happiness, and in order to have subjects upon whom he 
might bestow favors. 

We desire to be informed, in the next place, say they, 
how it can be conceived that a determination to damn mil- 
lions of men can contribute to the glory of God ? We 
easily conceive that it is for the glory of divine justice to 
punish guilty men : but to resolve to damn men without 
the consideration of sin, to create them that they might 
sin, to determine that they should sin in order to their 
destruction, is what seems to us more likely to tarnish the 
glory of God than to display it. 

Again, we demand how, according to this hypothesis, it 
can be conceived that God is not the author of sin ? In 
the general scheme of our churches, God only permits men 
to sin, and it is the abuse of liberty that plunges man into 



420 



RELLYANISTS. 



misery: even this principle, all lenified as it seems, is yet 
subject to a great number of difficulties ; but in this scheme 
God wills sin to produce the end he proposed in creating 
the world, and it was necessary that men should sin : God 
created them for that. If this be not to make God the 
author of sin, we must renounce the most distinct and clear 
ideas. 

Again, we require them to reconcile this system with 
many express declarations of Scripture, which inform us 
that God ivould have all men to be saved. How doth it 
agree with such pressing entreaties, such cutting reproofs, 
such tender expostulations, as God discovers in regard to 
the unconverted ? Matt, xxiii. 37. 

Lastly, we desire to know, how is it possible to conceive 
a God, who being in the actual enjoyment of perfect hap- 
piness, incomprehensible and supreme, could determine to 
add this decree, though useless to his felicity, to create men 
without number for the purpose of confining them for ever 
in the chains of darkness, and burning them for ever in 
unquenchable flames. 



RELLYANISTS. 

The Rellyanists, or Rellyan Universalists are the fol- 
lowers of Mr. James Relly. He first commenced his 
ministerial character in connection with Mr. Whitefield, 
and was received with great popularity. Upon a change 
of his views, he encountered reproach, and was pronounced 
by many as an enemy to godliness. He believed that 
Christ, as a Mediator, was so united to mankind, that his 
actions were theirs, his obedience and sufferings theirs ; 



KELLYANISTS. 



421 



and, consequently, that he has as fully restored the whole 
human race to the divine favor, as if all had obeyed and 
suffered in their own persons ; and upon this persuasion 
he preached a finished salvation, called by the apostle 
Jude, " The common salvation." 

Many of his followers are removed to the world of 
spirits, but a branch still survives. They are not observers 
of ordinances, such as water-baptism and the sacrament ; 
professing to believe only in one baptism, which they call 
an immersion of the mind or conscience into truth by the 
teaching of the Spirit of God ; and by the same Spirit 
they are enabled to feed on Christ as the bread of life, 
professing that in and with Jesus they possess all things. 
They inculcate and maintain good works for necessary 
purposes ; but contend that the principal and only work 
which ought to be attended to, is the doing of real good 
without religious ostentation ; that to relieve the miseries 
and distresses of mankind, according to our ability, is 
doing more real good than the superstitious observance of 
religious ceremonies. 

In general, they appear to believe that there will be a 
resurrection to life, and a resurrection to condemnation ; that 
believers only will be among the former, who as first fruits, 
and kings and priests, will have part in the first resurrec- 
tion, and shall reign with Christ in his kingdom of the 
millennium ; that unbelievers who are after raised, must 
wait the manifestation of the Saviour of the world, under 
that condemnation of conscience which a mind in darkness 
and wrath must necessarily feel; that believers, called 
kings and priests, will be made the medium of communica- 
tion to their condemned brethren, and like Joseph to his 
brethren, though he spoke roughly to them, in reality over- 
flowed with affection and tenderness ; that ultimately every 
knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that in the Lord 
36 



422 



MONOPH YSITES. 



they have righteousness and strength ; and thus every 
enemy shall be subdued to the kingdom and glory of the 
Great Mediator. A Mr. Murray belonging to this society 
emigrated to America, and preached these sentiments at 
Boston and elsewhere. Mr. Relly published several works, 
the principal of which were, " Union," " The Trial of 
Spirits," "Christian Liberty," " One Baptism," "The 
Salt of Sacrifice," "Antichrist Resisted," "Letters on 
Universal Salvation," "The Cherubimical Mystery." 



MONOPHYSITES. 

Monophysites is (from fxovoc:, solus, and <pu<r«£, natura,) a 
general name given to all those sectaries in the Levant 
who only own one nature in Jesus Christ ; and who main- 
tain that the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ 
were so united as to form only one nature, yet without any 
change, confusion, or mixture of the two natures. 

The Monophysites, however, properly so called, are the 
followers of Severus, a learned monk of Palestine, who 
was created patriarch of Antioch, in 513, and Petrus 
Fullensis. 

The Monophysites were encouraged by the emperor 
Anastasius, but suppressed by Justin and succeeding 
emperors. However, this sect was restored by Jacob 
Baradaeus, an obscure monk, insomuch that when he died 
bishop of Edessa, A. D. 588, he left it in a most flourishing 
state in Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, 
Abyssinia, and other countries. The laborious efforts of 
Jacob were seconded in Egypt and the adjacent countries 
by Theodosius, bishop of Alexandria ; and he became so 



MONOPHY SITES. 



423 



famous, that all the Monophysites of the East considered 
him as their second parent and founder, and are to this 
day called Jacobites, in honor of their new chief. 

The Monophysites are divided into two sects or parties, 
the one African and the other Asiatic ; at the head of the 
latter is the patriarch of Antioch, who resides for the most 
part in the monastery of St. Athanias, near the city of Mer- 
din ; the former are under the jurisdiction of the patriarch 
of Alexandria, who generally resides at Grand Cairo, and 
are subdivided into Cophts and Abyssinians. From the 
fifteenth century downwards, all the patriarchs of the 
Monophysites have taken the name of Ignatius, in order 
to show that they are the lineal successors of Ignatius, 
who was bishop of Antioch in the first century, and con- 
sequently the lawful patriarch of Antioch. In the seven- 
teenth century, a small body of Monophysites, in Asia, 
abandoned for some time the doctrine and institution of 
their ancestors, and embraced the communion of Home ; 
but the African Monophysites, notwithstanding that 
poverty and ignorance which exposed them to the seduc- 
tions of sophistry and gain, stood firm in their principles, 
and made an obstinate resistance to the promises, presents, 
and attempts employed by the papal missionaries to bring 
them under the Roman yoke ; and in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, those of Asia and Africa have persisted in their 
refusal to enter into the communion of the Romish church, 
notwithstanding the earnest entreaties and alluring offers 
that have been made from time to time by the pope's 
legates, to conquer their inflexible constancy. 



424 



MONOTHELITES. 



— CARMATHITES. 



MONOTHELITES. 

Monothelites, (compounded of fAovo?, " single," and 
and dsXrjfjLa, dsXu, volo, " I will,") an ancient sect, which 
sprung out of the Eutychians ; thus called, as only allow- 
ing of one will in Jesus Christ. 

The opinion of the Monothelites had its rise in 630, and 
had the emperor Heraclius for an adherent ; it was the 
same with that of the acephalous Severians. They allowed 
of two wills in Christ, considered with regard to the two 
natures ; hut reduced them to one by reason of the union 
of the two natures, thinking it absurd that there should bo 
two free wills in one and the same person. They were 
condemned by the sixth general council in 680, as being 
supposed to destroy the perfection of the humanity of 
Jesus Christ, depriving it of will and operation. Their 
sentiments were afterwards embraced by the Maronites. 



CARMATHITES. 

Carmathites, the followers of a noted impostor in the 
ninth century, who endeavored to overthrow all the foun- 
dations of Mussulmanism. Carmath their prophet was a 
person of great austerity of life ; and said that God had 
commanded him to pray not five times, with the Mussul- 
mans, but jifty times a day. To comply with this, they 
often neglected their business ; they ate many things for- 
bidden by the law of Mahomet, and believed that angels 
were their guides in all their actions, and that the demons 
or ghosts are their enemies. 



SADDUCEES. 



— SAMARITANS. 



425 



SADDUCEES. 

The Sadducees were a famous sect among the Jews ; so 
called, it is said, from their founder Sadoc. It began in 
the time of Antigonus, of Socho, president of the Sanhe- 
drim at Jerusalem, and teacher of the law in the principal 
divinity school of that city. Antigonus having often, in 
his lectures, inculcated to his scholars that they ought not 
to serve God in a servile manner, but only out of filial 
love and fear, two of his scholars, Sadoc and Baithus, 
thence inferred that there were no rewards at all after 
this life ; and, therefore, separating from the school of 
their master, they thought there was no resurrection nor 
future state, neither angel nor spirit, Matt. xii. 23 ; Acts 
xxiii. 8. They seem to agree greatly with the Epicureans ; 
differing, however, in this, that though they denied a future 
state, yet they allowed the power of God to create the 
world ; whereas the followers of Epicurus denied it. It is 
said also, they rejected the Bible, except the Pentateuch ; 
denied predestination ; and taught that God had made man 
absolute master of all his actions, without assistance to 
good, or restraint from evil. 



SAMARITANS. 

The Samaritans were an ancient sect among the Jews, 
whose origin was in the time of King Rehoboam, under 
whose reign the people of Israel were divided into two 
distinct kingdoms, that of Judah and that of Israel. The 
capital of the kingdom of Israel was Samaria, whence the 
36* 



426 



MELCHITES. 



Israelites took the name of Samaritans. Shalmaneser, 
king of Assyria, having besieged and taken Samaria, car- 
ried away all the people captives into the remotest parts 
of his dominions, and filled their place with Babylonians, 
Cutheans, and other idolaters. These, finding that they 
were exposed to wild beasts, desired that an Israelitish 
priest might be sent among them to instruct them in the 
ancient religion and customs of the land they inhabited. 
This being granted them, they were delivered from the 
plague of wild beasts, and embraced the law of Moses, 
with which they mixed a great part of their ancient idola- 
try. Upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonish 
captivity, it appears that they had entirely quitted the 
worship of their idols. But though they were united in 
religion, they were not so in affection with the Jews ; for 
they employed various calumnies and stratagems to hinder 
their rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem ; and when they 
could not prevail, they erected a temple on Mount Gerizim 
in opposition to that on Jerusalem. See 2 Kings xvii. ; 
Ezra iv., v., vi. The Samaritans at present are few in 
number, but pretend to great strictness in their observa- 
tion of the law of Moses. They are said to be scattered ; 
some at Damascus, some at Gaza, and some at Grand 
Cairo, in Egypt. 



MELCHITES. 

Melchites, the name given to the Syriac, Egyptian, 
and other Christians of the Levant. The Melchites, ex- 
cepting some few points of little or no importance, which 
relate only to ceremonies and ecclesiastical discipline, are, 
in every respect, professed Greeks ; but they are governed 



C E R.I NTHIANS. 



— LUCIANISTS. 



427 



by a particular patriarch, who assumes the title of Patri- 
arch of Antioch. They celebrate mass in the Arabian 
language. The religious among the Melchites follow 
the rule of St. Basil, the common rule of all the Greek 
monks. 



CERINTHIANS. 

The Cerinthians were ancient heretics, who denied the 
deity of Jesus Christ ; so named from Cerinthus. They 
believed that he was a mere man, the son of Joseph and 
Mary ; but that in his baptism a celestial virtue descended 
on him in the form of a dove ; by means whereof he was 
consecrated by the Holy Spirit, made Christ, and wrought 
so many miracles ; that, as he received it from heaven, it 
quitted him after his passion, and returned to the place 
whence it came; so that Jesus, whom they called a pure 
man, really died and rose again ; but that Christ, who was 
distinguished from Jesus, did not suffer at all. It was 
partly to refute this sect that St. John wrote his Gospel. 
They received the Gospel of St. Matthew, to countenance 
their doctrine of circumcision ; but they omitted the gene- 
alogy. They discarded the epistles of St. Paul, because 
that apostle held circumcision abolished. 



LUCIANISTS. 

Lucianists, or Lucanists, a sect so called from Lucia- 
nus, or Lucanus, a heretic of the second century, being a 
disciple of Marcion, whose errors he followed, adding some 
new ones to them. Epiphanius says he abandoned Mar- 



428 



LUCIFERIANS. 



cion, teaching that people ought not to marry, for fear of 
enriching the Creator ; and yet other authors mention, 
that he held this error in common with Marcion and other 
Gnostics. He denied the immortality of the soul, asserting 
it to be material. 

There was another sect of Lucianists, who appeared 
some time after the Arians. They taught that the Father 
had heen a Father always, and that he had the name even 
before he had begot the Son, as having in him the power 
and faculty of generation ; and in this manner they ac- 
counted for the eternity of the Son. 



LUCIFERIANS. 

Luciferians, a sect who adhered to the schism of Luci- 
fer, Bishop of Cagliari, in the fourth century, who was 
banished by the Emperor -Constantius, for having defended 
the Nicene doctrine concerning the three persons in the 
Godhead. It is said also that they believed the soul to 
be corporeal, and to be transmitted from the father to the 
children. The Luciferians were numerous in Gaul, Spain, 
Egypt, &c. The occasion of this schism was, that Lucifer 
would not allow any acts he had done to be abolished. 
There were but two Luciferian bishops, but a great num- 
ber of priests and deacons. The Luciferians bore a great 
aversion to the Arians. 



GALILEANS. 



— SABELLIANS. 



429 



GALILEANS. 

The Galileans were a sect of the Jews which arose in 
Judea, some years after the birth of our Saviour. They 
sprang from one Judas, a native of Gaulam, in Upper 
Galilee, upon the occasion of Augustus appointing the 
people to be mustered, which they looked upon as an in- 
stance of servitude which all true Israelites ought to oppose. 
They pretended that God alone should be owned as master 
and lord, and in other respects were of the opinion of the 
Pharisees ; but as they judged it unlawful to pray for 
infidel princes, they separated themselves from the rest of 
the Jews, and performed their sacrifices apart. As our 
Saviour and his apostles were of Galilee, they were sus- 
pected to be of the sect of the Galileans ; and it was on 
this principle, as St. Jerome observes, that the Pharisees 
laid a snare for him, asking, Whether it were lawful to 
give tribute to Caesar ? that in case he denied it, they 
might have an occasion of accusing him. 



SABELLIANS. 

The Sabellians were a sect in the third century that 
embraced the opinions of Sabellius, a philosopher of 
Egypt, who openly taught that there is but one person in 
the Godhead. 

The Sabellians maintained that the Word and the Holy 
Spirit are only virtues, emanations, or functions of the 
Deity ; and held that he who is in heaven is the Father of 



430 



MATERIALISTS. 



all things ; that he descended into the Virgin, became a 
child, and was born of her as a son; and that, having 
accomplished the mystery of our salvation, he diffused 
himself on the apostles in tongues of fire, and was then 
denominated the Holy Ghost. This they explained by 
comparing God to the sun ; the illuminated virtue or qua- 
lity of which was the Word, and its warming virtue the 
Holy Spirit. The Word, they taught, was darted, like a 
divine ray, to accomplish the work of redemption ; and 
that, being re-ascended to heaven, the influences of the 
Father were communicated after a like manner to the 
apostles. 



MATERIALISTS. 

The Materialists were a sect in the ancient church, 
composed of persons who, being prepossessed with that 
maxim in philosophy, "ex niliilo nifyilfit" out of nothing 
nothing can arise, had recourse to an eternal matter, on 
which they supposed God wrought in the creation, instead 
of admitting Him alone as the sole cause of the existence 
of all things. Tertullian vigorously opposed them in his 
treatise against Hermogenes, who was one of their number. 

Materialists are also those who maintain that the soul 
of man is material, or that the principle of perception and 
thought is not a substance distinct from the body, but the 
result of corporeal organization. There are others called 
by this name, who have maintained that there is nothing 
but matter in the universe. 

The followers of the late Dr. Priestley are considered as 
Materialists, or Philosophical Necessarians. According to 
the doctor's writing, he believed — 



MATERIALISTS. 



431 



1. That man is no more than what we now see of him ; 
his "being commences at the time of his conception, or per- 
haps at an earlier period. The corporeal and mental 
faculties, inhering in the same substance, grow, ripen, and 
decay together ; and whenever the system is dissolved, it 
continues in a state of dissolution, till it shall please that 
Almighty Being, who called it into existence, to restore it 
to life again. For if the mental principle were, in its own 
nature, immaterial and immortal, all its peculiar faculties 
would he so too ; whereas we see that every faculty of the 
mind, without exception, is liable to be impaired, and even 
to become wholly extinct, before death. Since, therefore, 
all the faculties of the mind, separately taken, appear to 
be mortal, the substance, or principle, in which they exist, 
must be pronounced mortal too. Thus we might conclude 
that the body was mortal, from observing that all the 
separate senses and limbs were liable to decay and perish. 

This system gives a real value to the doctrine of the 
resurrection from the dead, which is peculiar to revelation ; 
on which alone the sacred writers build all our hope of 
future life ; and it explains the uniform language of the 
Scriptures, which speak of one day of judgment for all 
mankind, and represent all the rewards of virtue, and all 
the punishments of vice, as taking place at that awful day, 
and not before. In the Scriptures the heathens are repre- 
sented as without hope, and all mankind as perishing at 
death, if there be no resurrection of the dead. 

The Apostle Paul asserts, in 1 Cor. xv. 16, that if the 
dead rise not, then is not Christ risen ; and if Christ be 
not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins : 
then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished,. 
And again, verse 32 : If the dead rise not, let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die. In the whole discourse, he 



432 



MATERIALISTS. 



does not even mention the doctrine of happiness or misery 
without the body. 

If we search the Scriptures for passages expressive of 
the state of man at death, we find such declarations as 
expressly exclude any trace of sense, thought, or enjoy- 
ment. See Ps. vi. 5 ; Job xiv. 7, etc. 

2. That there is some fixed law of nature respecting the 
will, as well as the other powers of the mind, and every- 
thing else in the constitution of nature ; and consequently 
that it is never determined without some real or apparent 
cause foreign to itself ; i. c, without some motive or choice; 
or that motives influence us in some definite and invariable 
manner, so that every volition, or choice, is constantly 
regulated and determined by what precedes it ; and this 
constant determination of mind, according to the motives 
presented to it, is what is meant by its necessary determi- 
nation. This being admitted to be the fact, there will be 
a necessary connection between all tilings past, present, 
and to come, in the way of proper cause and effect, as 
much in the intellectual as in the natural world ; so that, 
according to the established laws of nature, no event could 
have been otherwise than it has been or is to be, and there- 
fore all things past, present, and to come, are precisely 
what the Author of Nature really intended them to be, 
and has made provision for. 

To establish this conclusion, nothing is necessary but 
that, throughout all nature, the same consequences should 
invariably result from the same circumstances. For, if this 
be admitted, it will necessarily follow, that at the com- 
mencement of any system, since the several parts of it and 
their respective situations were appointed by the Deity, 
the first change would take place according to a certain 
rule established by himself, the result of which would be 
a new situation ; after which the same laws continuing, 



MATERIALISTS. 



433 



another change would succeed, according to the same rules, 
and so on forever ; every new situation invariably leading 
to another, and every event, from the commencement to 
the termination of the system, being strictly connected ; 
so that, unless the fundamental laws of the system were 
changed, it would be impossible that any event should have 
been otherwise than it was. In all these cases, the cir- 
cumstances preceding any change are called the causes of 
that change ; and since a determinate event or effect con- 
stantly follows certain circumstances or causes, the con- 
nection between cause and effect is concluded to be inva- 
riable, and therefore necessary. 

It is universally acknowledged, that there can be no 
effect without an adequate cause. This is even the foun- 
dation on which the only proper argument for the being of 
a God rests. And the Necessarian asserts that if, in any 
given state of mind, with respect both to dispositions and 
motives, two different determinations, or volitions, be pos- 
sible, it can be on no other principle than that one of them 
should come under the description of an effect without a 
cause ; just as if the beam of balance might incline either 
way, though loaded with equal weights. And if anything 
whatever, even a thought in the mind of man, could arise 
without an adequate cause, anything else, the mind itself, 
or the whole universe, might likewise exist without an ade- 
quate cause. 

This scheme of philosophical necessity implies a chain 
of causes and effects established by infinite wisdom, and 
terminating in the greatest good of the whole universe ; 
evils of all kinds, natural and moral, being admitted, as 
far as they contribute to that end, or are in the nature of 
things inseparable from it. Vice is productive not of good, 
but of evil to us, both here and hereafter, though good 
may result from it to the whole system ; and according to 
37 2q 



434 



MATERIALISTS. 



the fixed laws of nature, our present and future happiness 
necessarily depend on our cultivating good dispositions. 

This scheme of philosophical necessity is distinguished 
from the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination in the fol- 
lowing particulars : 

1. No Necessarian supposes that any of the human race 
will suffer eternally, but that future punishments will an- 
swer the same purpose as temporal ones are found to do ; 
all of which tend to good, and are evidently admitted for 
that purpose. Upon the doctrine of necessity, also, the 
most indifferent actions of men are equally necessary with 
the most important ; since every volition, like any other 
effect, must have an adequate cause depending upon the 
previous state of the mind, and the influence to which it is 
exposed. 

2. The Necessarian believes that his own dispositions 
and actions are the necessary and sole means of his pre- 
sent and future happiness ; so that, in the most proper 
sense of the words, it depends entirely on himself whether 
he be virtuous or vicious, happy or miserable. 

3. The Calvinistic system entirely excludes the popular 
notion of free will, viz. : the liberty or power of doing 
what we please, virtuous or vicious, as belonging to every 
person, in every situation ; which is perfectly consistent 
with the doctrine of philosophical necessity, and indeed 
results from it. 

4. The Necessarian believes nothing of the posterity of 
Adam's sinning in him, and of their being liable to the 
wrath of God on that account ; or the necessity of an in- 
finite Being making atonement for them by suffering in 
their stead, and thus making the Deity propitious to them. 
He believes nothing of all the actions of any man being 
necessarily sinful ; but, on the contrary, thinks that the 
very worst of men are capable of benevolent intentions in 



JACOBITES. 



435 



many things that they do ; and likewise that very good 
men are capable -of falling from virtue, and consequently 
of sinking into final perdition. Upon the principles of 
the Necessarian, also, all late repentance, and especially 
after long and confirmed habits of vice, is altogether and 
necessarily ineffectual ; there not being sufficient time left 
to produce a change of disposition and character, which 
can only be done by a change of conduct of proportionably 
long continuance. 

In short, the three doctrines of Materialism, Philoso- 
phical Necessity, and Socinianism, are considered as equally 
parts of one system. The scheme of Necessity is the im- 
mediate result of the materiality of man ; for mechanism 
is the undoubted consequence of materialism, and that 
man is wholly material, is eminently subservient to the 
proper or mere humanity of Christ. For if no man have 
a soul distinct from his body, Christ, who in all other re- 
spects appeared as a man, could not have a soul which had 
existed before his body; and the whole doctrine of the 
pre-existence of souls, of which the opinion of the pre- 
existence of Christ is a branch, will be effectually over- 
turned. 



JACOBITES. 

The Jacobites are a sect of Christians in Syria and 
Mesopotamia ; so called, either from Jacob, a Syrian, who 
lived in the reign of the Emperor Mauritius, or from one 
Jacob, a monk, who flourished in the year 550. 

The Jacobites are of two sects, some following the rites 
of the Latin church, and others continuing separated from 
the church of Rome. There is also a division among the 



436 



JANSENISTS. 



latter, who have two rival patriarchs. As to their belief, 
they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ ; with respect to 
purgatory, and prayers for the dead, they are of the same 
opinion with the Greeks and other eastern Christians. 
They consecrate unleavened bread at the eucharist, and 
are against confession, believing that it is not of divine 
institution. 



JANSENISTS. 

The Jansenists were a sect of the Roman Catholics in 
France, who followed the opinions of Jansenius (bishop of 
Ypres, and doctor of divinity of the universities of Louvain 
and Douay,) in relation to grace and predestination. 

In the year 1640, the two universities just mentioned, 
and particularly father Molina and father Leonard Celsus, 
thought fit to condemn the opinions of the Jesuits on grace 
and free-will. This having set the controversy on foot, 
Jansenius opposed to the doctrine of the Jesuits the senti- 
ments of St. Augustine, and wrote a treatise on grace, 
which he intituled Augustinus. This treatise was attacked 
by the Jesuits, who accused Jansenius of maintaining 
dangerous and heretical opinions ; and afterwards, in 1642, 
obtained of pope Urban VIII. a formal condemnation of 
the treatise written by Jansenius ; when the partisans of 
Jansenius gave out that this bull was spurious, and com- 
posed by a person entirely devoted to the Jesuits. After 
the death of Urban VIII., the affair of Jansenism began 
to be more warmly controverted, and gave birth to a great 
number of polemical writings concerning grace ; and what 
occasioned some mirth, were the titles which each party 
gave to their writings : one writer published the Torch of 



JANSENISTS. 



437 



St Augustine ; another found Snuffers for St. Augustine's 
Torch ; and father Veron formed A Gag for the Jansen- 
ists, &c. In the year 1650, sixty-eight bishops of France 
subscribed a letter to pope Innocent X., to obtain an 
inquiry into and condemnation of the five following propo- 
sitions, extracted from Jansenius's Augustinus. 1. Some 
of God's commandments are impossible to be observed by 
the righteous, even though they endeavor with all their 
power to accomplish them. 2. In the state of corrupted 
nature, we are incapable of resisting inward grace. 3. 
Merit and demerit, in a state of corrupted nature, do not 
depend on a liberty which excludes necessity, but on a 
liberty which excludes constraint. 4. The Semipelagians 
admitted the necessity of an inward preventing grace for 
the performance of each particular act, even for the begin- 
ning of faith ; but they were heretics in maintaining that 
this grace was of such a nature that the will of man was 
able either to resist or obey it. 5. It is Semipelagianism 
to say that Jesus Christ died, or shed his blood, for all 
mankind in general. 

In the year 1652, the pope appointed a congregation 
for examining into the dispute relative to grace. In this 
congregation Jansenius was condemned ; and the bull of 
condemnation, published in May, 1653, filled all the pulpits 
in Paris with violent outcries and alarms against the 
Jansenists. In the year 1656, pope Alexander VII. 
issued another bull, in which he condemned the five pro- 
positions of Jansenius. However, the Jansenists affirmed 
that these propositions were not to be found in this 
book ; but that some of his enemies having caused them to 
be printed on a sheet, inserted them in the book, and 
thereby deceived the pope. At last Clement XI. put an 
end to the dispute by his constitution of July 17, 1705, in 
which, after having recited the constitutions of his pre- 
37* 



438 



JANSENISTS. 



decessors in relation to this affair, he declared, " That, in 
order to pay a proper obedience to the papal constitutions 
concerning the present question, it is necessary to receive 
them with a respectful silence." The clergy of Paris, the 
same year, approved and accepted this bull, and none 
dared to oppose it. This is the famous bull U?iigenitus, 
so called from its beginning with the words Unigenitus 
Dei FiliuSy &c, which has occasioned so much confusion 
in France. 

It was not only on account of their embracing the doc- 
trines of Augustine that the Jesuits were so embittered 
against them ; but that which offended the Jesuits, and the 
other creatures of the Roman pontiff, was their strict piety 
and severe moral discipline. The Jansenists cried out 
against the corruptions of the church of Rome, and com- 
plained that neither its doctrines nor morals retained any 
traces of their former purity. They reproached the clergy 
with an universal depravation of sentiments and manners, 
and an entire forgetfulness of the dignity of their charac- 
ter and the duties of their vocation ; they censured the 
licentiousness of the monastic orders, and insisted upon 
the necessity of reforming their discipline according to the 
rules of sanctity, abstinence, and self-denial, that were 
originally prescribed by their respective founders. They 
maintained, also, that the people ought to be carefully 
instructed in all the doctrines and precepts of Christianity ; 
and that, for this purpose, the Holy Scriptures and public 
liturgies should be offered to their perusal in their mother 
tongue ; and, finally, they looked upon it as a matter of 
the highest moment to persuade all Christians that true 
piety did not consist in the observance of pompous rites, 
or in the performance of external acts of devotion, but .in 
inward holiness and divine love. 

Notwithstanding the above-mentioned sentiments, the 



JANSENISTS. 



439 



Jansenists have been accused of superstition and fanati- 
cism ; and, on account of their severe discipline and prac- 
tice, have been denominated Rig ovists. It is said that 
they made repentance consist chiefly in those voluntary 
sufferings which the transgressor inflicted upon himself, in 
proportion to the nature of his crimes and the degree of 
his guilt. They tortured and macerated their bodies by 
painful labor, excessive abstinence, continual prayer, and 
contemplation ; nay, they carried these austerities, it is 
said, to so high a pitch, as to place merit in them, and to 
consider those as the sacred victims of repentance who had 
gradually put an end to their days by their excessive 
abstinence and labor. Dr. Haweis, however, in his Church 
History, (vol. iii. p. 46,) seems to form a more favorable 
opinion of them. "I do not," says he, " readily receive 
the accusations that Papists or Protestants have objected 
to them as over-rigorous and fanatic in their devotion ; but 
I will admit many things might be blameable ; a tincture 
of popery might drive them to push monkish austerities 
too far, and secretly to place some merit in mortification, 
which they in general disclaimed ; yet, with all that can 
be said, surely the root of the matter was in them. When 
I read Jansenius, or his disciples Pascal or Quesnel, I bow 
before such distinguished excellencies, and confess them 
my brethren ; shall I say my fathers ? Their principles 
are pure and evangelical ; their morals founded upon the 
apostles and prophets ; and their zeal to amend and con- 
vert, blessed with eminent success." 



440 



FRENCH PROPHETS. 



FRENCH PROPHETS. 

They first appeared in Dauphiny and Vivarais. In the 
year 1688, five or six hundred Protestants of both sexes 
gave themselves out to be prophets, and inspired of the 
Holy Ghost. They soon became so numerous, that there 
were many thousands of them inspired. They were people 
of all ages and sexes without distinction, though the greatest 
part of them were boys and girls from six or seven to 
twenty-five years of age. They had strange fits, which 
came upon them with tremblings and faintings as in a swoon, 
which made them stretch out their arms and legs, and stag- 
ger several times before they dropped down. They struck 
themselves with their hands, they fell on their backs, shut 
their eyes, and heaved with their breasts. They remained 
a while in trances, and, coming out of them with twitchings, 
uttered all which came in their mouths. They said they 
saw the heavens open, the angels, paradise, and hell. Those 
who were just on the point of receiving t lie spirit of pro- 
phecy, dropped down not only in the assemblies, crying out 
mercy, bat in the fields, and in their own houses. The 
least of their assemblies made up four or five hundred, and 
some of them amounted to even three or four thousand 
persons. When the prophets had for a while been under 
agitations of body, they began to prophesy. The burden 
of their prophecies was — Amend your lives; repent ye : 
the end of all things draws nigh! The hills resounded with 
their loud cries for mercy, and imprecations against the 
priests, the church, the pope, and against the anti-christian 
dominion, with predictions of the approaching fall of popery. 
All they said at these times was heard and received with 
reverence and awe. 



FRENCH PROPHETS. 



441 



In the year 1706, three or four of these prophets came 
over into England, and brought their prophetic spirit along 
with them, which discovered itself in the same ways and 
manners, by ecstacies, and agitations, and inspirations 
under them, as it had done in France ; and they propa- 
gated the like spirit to others, so that before the year was 
out, there were two or three hundred of these prophets in 
and about London, of both sexes, of all ages, men, womeD, 
and children ; and they had delivered, under inspiration, 
four or five hundred prophetic warnings. 

The great things they pretended by their spirit was, to 
give warning of the near approach of the kingdom of Grod, 
the hap>py times of the church, the millennium state. Their 
message was (and they were to proclaim it as heralds to the 
Jews, and every nation under heaven, beginning at Eng- 
land), that the grand jubilee, the acceptable year of the 
Lord, the accomplishment of those numerous Scriptures 
concerning the new heaven and the new earth, the kingdom 
of the Messiah, the marriage of the Lamb, the first resur- 
rection, or the new Jerusalem descending from above, "were 
now even at the door ; that this great operation was to be 
wrought on the part of man by spiritual arms only, pro- 
ceeding from the mouths of those who should, by inspira- 
tion, or the mighty gift of the Spirit, be sent forth in great 
numbers ; to labor in the vineyard ; that this mission of his 
servants should be witnessed to by signs and wonders from 
heaven, by a deluge of judgments on the wicked universally 
throughout the world, as famine, pestilence, earthquakes, 
&c. ; that the extermination angels shall root out the tares, 
and there shall remain upon the earth only good corn ; and 
the works of men being thrown down, there shall be but 
one Lord, one faith, one heart, one voice among mankind. 
They declared that all the great things they spoke of would 



442 



CIRCONCELLIONES. 



be manifest over the whole earth within the term of three 
years. 

These prophets also pretended to the gift of languages, 
of discerning the secrets of the heart, the gift of ministra- 
tion of the same spirit to others by the laying on of the 
hands, and the gift of healing. To prove they were really 
inspired by the Holy Ghost, they alleged the complete joy 
and satisfaction they experienced, the spirit of prayer, 
which was poured forth upon them, and the answer of their 
prayer to God. 



CIRCONCELLIONES. 

The Circoncelliones were a species of fanatics, so called 
because they were continually rambling round the houses 
in the country. They took their rise among the Donatists, 
in the reign of the Emperor Constantine. It is incredible 
what ravages and cruelties they committed in Africa, 
through a long series of years. They were illiterate, savage 
peasants, who understood only the Punic language. 

Intoxicated with a barbarous zeal, they renounced agri- 
culture, professed continence, and assumed the title of 
"Vindicators of justice, and protectors of the oppressed." 
To accomplish their mission, they enfranchised slaves, 
scoured the roads, forced masters to alight from their cha- 
riots, and run before their slaves, whom they obliged to 
mount in their place; and discharged debtors, killing the 
creditors if they refused to cancel their bonds. But the 
chief objects of their cruelty were the Catholics, and espe- 
cially those who had renounced Donatism. 

At first, they used no swords, because God had forbidden 



CIRCONCELLIONES. 



443 



the use of one to Peter ; but they were armed with clubs, 
which they called the clubs of Israel, and which they han- 
dled in such a manner as to break a man's bones without 
killing him immediately, so that he languished a long time, 
and then died. When they took away a man's life at once> 
they looked upon it as a favor. They became less scrupu- 
lous afterwards, and made use of all sorts of arms. Their 
shout was, Praise be to God. These words in their mouths 
were the signal of slaughter, more terrible than the roaring 
of a lion. They had invented an unheard-of punishment, 
which was, to cover with lime, diluted with vinegar, the 
eyes of those unhappy wretches whom they had crushed 
with blows and covered with wounds, and to abandon them 
in that condition. 

Never was a stronger proof of what horrors superstition 
can beget in minds destitute of knowledge and humanity. 
These brutes, who had made a vow of chastity, gave them- 
selves up to wine, and all sorts of impurities ; running about 
with women and young girls as drunk as themselves, whom 
they called sacred virgins, and who often carried proofs 
of their incontinence. Their chief took the name of chief 
of the saints. After having glutted themselves with blood, 
they turned their rage upon themselves, and sought death 
with the same fury with which they gave it to others. 
Some scrambled up to the tops of rocks, and cast them- 
selves down headlong in multitudes ; others burned them- 
selves, or threw themselves into the sea. 

Those who proposed to acquire the title of martyrs, pub- 
lished it long before ; upon which they were feasted and 
fattened like oxen for the slaughter : after these prepara- 
tions, they set out to be destroyed. Sometimes they gave 
money to those whom they met, and threatened to murder 
them if they did not make them martyrs. 

Theodoret gives an account of a stout young man, who, 



444 



C P H T S . 



meeting with a troop of these fanatics, consented to kill 
them, provided he might bind them first ; and having by 
this means put it out of their power to defend themselves, 
whipped them as long as he was able, and then left them 
tied in that manner. Their bishops pretended to blame 
them, but in reality made use of them to intimidate such 
as might be tempted to forsake their sect ; they even hon- 
ored them as saints. They were not, however, able to 
govern these furious monsters ; and more than once found 
themselves under the necessity of abandoning them, and 
even of imploring the assistance of the secular power 
against them. 

The Counts Ursacius and Taurinus were employed to 
quell them ; they destroyed a great number of them, of 
whom the Donatists made as many martyrs. Ursacius, 
who was a Catholic, and a religious man, having lost his 
life in an engagement with the barbarians, the Donatists 
did not fail to triumph in his death, as an effect of the ven- 
geance of heaven. Africa was the theatre of these bloody 
scenes during a great part of Constantine's life. 



COPHTS 

Cophti, Cophts, or Copti, a name given to the Christians 
of Egypt who are of the sect of the Jacobites. The 
Cophts have a patriarch, who resides at Cairo ; but he 
takes his title from Alexandria. He has no archbishop 
under him, but eleven or twelve bishops. The rest of the 
clergy, whether secular or regular, are composed of the 
orders of St. Anthony, St. Paul, St. Macarius, who have 
each their monasteries. Besides the orders of priests, 



C PHT S. 



445 



deacons, and sub-deacons, the Cophts have likewise archi- 
mandrites, or abbots ; the dignity whereof they confer 
with all the prayers and ceremonies of a strict ordination. 

By a custom of six hundred years' standing, if a priest 
elected bishop be not already archimandrite, that dignity 
must be conferred on him before episcopal ordination. 
The second person among the clergy after the patriarch, 
is the titular patriarch of Jerusalem, who also resides at 
Cairo. To him belongs the government of the Cophtic 
Church during the vacancy of the patriarchal see. To be 
elected patriarch, it is necessary the person have lived all 
his life in continence. To be elected bishop the person 
must be in the celibate ; or if he have been married, it 
must not be above once. 

The priests and inferior ministers are allowed to be 
married before ordination ; but not forced to it, as some 
have observed. They have a great number of deacons, 
and even confer the dignity frequently on their children. 
None but the lowest rank among the people commence 
ecclesiastics ; whence arises that excessive ignorance found 
among them ; yet the respect of the laity towards the 
clergy is very extraordinary. The monastic life is in 
great esteem among them ; to be admitted into it, there is 
always required the consent of the bishop. 

The religious Cophts, it is said, make a vow of perpe- 
tual chastity ; renounce the world, and live with great 
austerity in deserts ; they are obliged to sleep in their 
clothes and their girdle, on a mat stretched on the ground; 
and to prostrate themselves every evening one hundred 
and fifty times with their face and breast on the ground. 
They are all, both men and women, of the lowest class of 
the people, and live on alms. The nunneries are properly 
hospitals, and few enter but widows reduced to beggary. 
38 



446 



BASILIDIANS. 



BASILIDIANS. 

The Basilidians were a denomination in the second cen- 
tury, from Basilides, chief of the Egyptian Gnostics. Ho 
acknowledged the existence of one supreme God, perfect 
in goodness and wisdom, avIio produced from his own sub- 
stance seven beings, or aions, of a most excellent nature. 
Two of these aions, called Dynamis and Sophiz (i. c., 
poiver and tvisdom), engendered the angels of the highest 
order. These angels formed a heaven for their habitation, 
and brought forth other angelic beings, of a nature some- 
what inferior to their own. Many other generations of 
angels followed these. New heavens were also created, 
until the number of angelic orders and of their respective 
heavens, amounted to three hundred and sixty-five, and 
thus equalled the days of the year. All these are under 
the empire of an omnipotent Lord, whom Basilides called 
Abraxas. 

The inhabitants of the lowest heavens, which touched 
upon the borders of the eternal, malignant, and self-ani-' 
mated matter, conceived the design of forming a world 
from that confused mass, and of creating an order of beings 
to people it. This design was carried into execution, and 
was approved by the Supreme God, who, to the animal 
life with which only the inhabitants of this new world were 
at first endowed, added a reasonable soul, giving at the 
same time to the angels the empire over them. 

These angelic beings, advanced to the government of the 
world which they had created, fell by degrees from their 
original purity, and soon manifested the fatal marks of 
their depravity and corruption. They not only endeavored 



CHRISTIANS OF ST. JOHN. 



447 



to efface in the ininds of men their knowledge of the Su- 
preme Being, that they might be worshipped in his stead, 
but also began to war against each other, with an ambi- 
tious view to enlarge every one the bounds of his respective 
dominion. The most arrogant and turbulent of all these 
angelic spirits was that which presided over the Jewish 
nation. Hence the Supreme God, beholding with compas- 
sion the miserable state of rational beings, who groaned 
under the contest of these jarring powers, sent from heaven 
his son Nus, or Christ, the chief of the aions, that, joined 
in a substantial union with the man Jesus, he might restore 
the knowledge of the Supreme God, destroy the empire of 
those angelic natures which presided over the world, and 
particularly that of the arrogant leader of the Jewish 
people. The God of the Jews, alarmed at this, sent forth 
his ministers to seize the man Jesus, and put him to death. 
They executed his commands ; but their cruelty could not 
extend to Christ, against whom their efforts were vain. 
Those souls, who obey the precepts of the Son of God, 
shall, after the dissolution of their mortal frame, ascend to 
the Father, while their bodies return to the corrupt mass 
of matter whence they were formed. Disobedient spirits, 
on the contrary, shall pass successively into other bodies. 



CHRISTIANS OF ST. JOHN. 

The Christians of St. John, a sect of Christians very 
numerous in Balfara, and the neighboring towns : they for- 
merly inhabited along the river Jordan, where St. John 
baptized, and it was from thence they had their name. 
They hold an anniversary feast of five days, during which 



448 



CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS. 



they all go to the bishop, who baptizes them with the bap- 
tism of St. John. Their baptism is also performed in 
rivers, and that only on Sundays ; they have no notion of 
the third person in the Trinity ; nor have they any canoni- 
cal book, but abundance full of charms, &c. Their bish- 
oprics descend by inheritance as our estates do, though 
they have the ceremony of an election. 



CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS. 

The Christians of St. Thomas were a sort of Christians 
in a peninsula of India on this side the Gulf; they inhabit 
chiefly at Cranganor, and the neighboring country ; these 
admit of no images, and receive only the cross, to which 
they pay a great veneration. They affirm that the souls 
of the saints do not see God till after the day of judgment; 
they acknowledge but three sacraments, viz., baptism, 
orders, and the eucharist : they make no use of holy oils 
in the administration of baptism, but, after the ceremony, 
anoint the infant with an unction composed of oil and wal- 
nuts, without any benediction. In the eucharist they con- 
secrate with little cakes made of oil and salt, and instead 
of wine, make use of crater in which raisins have been 
infused. 

In the Asiatic Researches of the Society instituted in 
Bengal, may be found an enlarged account of the Chris- 
tians of St. Thomas, which was laid before that society by 
F. Wrede, Esq. See also Monthly Magazine for 1804, 
p. 60, and Dr. Kerr's Report to Lord Bentinck, on the 
state of the Christians inhabiting the kingdom of Cochin 
and Travancore. 



ANTISABBATARIANS. 



— ATHEISTS. 



449 



ANTISABBATAKIANS. 

The Antisabbatarians are a modern religious sect, who 
deny the necessity of observing the Sabbath Day. Their 
chief arguments are, 1. That the Jewish Sabbath was only 
of ceremonial, not of moral obligation ; and consequently, 
is abolished by the coming of Christ. 2. That no other 
Sabbath was appointed to be observed by Christ or his 
apostles. 3. That there is not a word of Sabbath-breaking 
in all the New Testament. 4. That no command was given 
to Adam or Noah to keep any Sabbath. And, 5. That, 
therefore, although Christians are commanded " not to for- 
sake the assembling of themselves together," they ought 
not to hold one day more holy than another. 



ATHEISTS. 

An Atheist is one who denies the existence of God : — this 
is called speculative atheism. Professing to believe in God, 
and yet acting contrary to this belief, is called practical 
atheism. Absurd and irrational as atheism is, it has had 
its votaries and martyrs. In the seventeenth century, 
Spinosa, a foreigner, was its noted defender. Lucilio Va- 
nini, a native of Naples, also publicly taught atheism in 
France ; and being convicted of it at Toulouse, was con- 
demned and executed in 1619. It has been questioned, 
however, whether any man ever seriously adopted such a 
principle. The pretensions to it have been generally 
38* 2d 



450 



ATHEISTS. 



founded on pride or affectation. The open avowal of athe- 
ism by several of the leading members of the French con- 
vention seems to have been an extraordinary moral phe- 
nomenon. This, however, as we have seen, was too vague 
and uncomfortable a principle to last long. Archbishop 
Tillotson justly observes that speculative atheism is unrea- 
sonable upon five accounts. 1. Because it gives no tole- 
rable account of the existence of the world. 2. It does not 
give any reasonable account of the universal consent of 
mankind in this apprehension, that there is a God. 3. It 
requires more evidence for things than they are capable 
of giving. 4. The atheist pretends to know that which no 
man can know. 5. Atheism contradicts itself. Under the 
first of these he thus argues : "I appeal to any man of 
reason whether anything can be more unreasonable than 
obstinately to impute an effect to chance, which carries in 
the very face of it all the arguments and characters of a 
wise design and contrivance. Was ever any considerable 
work, in which there was required a great variety of parts, 
and a regular and orderly disposition of those parts, done 
by chance ? Will chance fit means to ends, and that in 
ten thousand instances, and not fail in any one ? How 
often might a man, after he had jumbled a set of letters in 
a bag, fling them out upon the ground before they would 
fall into an exact poem ; yea, or so much as make a good 
discourse in prose ? And may not a little book be as easily 
made by chance as the great volume of the world ? How 
long might a man be in sprinkling colors upon canvas with 
a careless hand, before they would happen to make the 
exact picture of a man ? And is a man easier made by 
chance than his picture ? How long might twenty thousand 
blind men who should be sent out from several remote parts 
of England, wander up and down before they would all 
meet upon Salisbury plain, and fall into rank and file in 



ATHEISTS. 



451 



the exact order of an army ? And yet this is much more 
easy to be imagined than how the innumerable blind parts 
of matter should rendezvous themselves into a world. A 
man that sees Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster 
might with as good reason maintain (yea, with much better, 
considering the vast difference betwixt that little structure 
and the huge fabric of the world) that it was never con- 
trived or built by any means, but that the stones did by 
chance grow into those curious figures into which they 
seem to have been cut and graven; and that upon a time 
(as tales usually begin) the materials of that building, the 
stone, mortar, timber, iron, lead, and glass, happily met 
together, and very fortunately ranged themselves into that 
delicate order in which we see them, now so close com- 
pacted, that it must be a very great chance that parts them 
again. What would the world think of a man that should 
advance such an opinion as this, and write a book for it? 
If they would do him right, they ought to look upon him 
as mad ; but yet with a little more reason than any man 
can have to say, that the world was made by chance, or 
that the first men grew up out of the earth as plants do 
now. For, can anything be more ridiculous, and against 
all reason, than to ascribe the production of men to the 
first fruitfulness of the earth, without so much as one in- 
stance and experiment, in any age or history, to counte- 
nance so monstrous a supposition ? The thing is, at first 
sight, so gross and palpable, that no discourse about it can 
make it more apparent. And yet, these shameful beggars 
of principles give this precarious account of the original 
of things ; assume to themselves to be the men of reason, 
the great wits of the world, the only cautious and wary 
persons that hate to be imposed upon, that must have con- 
vincing evidence for everything, and can admit of nothing 
without a clear demonstration of it." 



452 



GUEBERS. 



GUEBERS, OR FIRE-WORSIIIPPERS. 

Guebers, or Guebres, or Gauers (i. e., infidels) ; the 
fire-worshippers in Persia ; in India called Parsees. They 
call themselves Behe?idie, or followers of the true faith, 
and live chiefly in the deserts of Caramania, towards the 
Persian gulf, and in the province Yerd Kerara. These 
people, who are but little known, are laborious and tempe- 
rate cultivators of the ground. The manners of the Guebers 
are mild. They drink wine, cat all kinds of meat, marry 
but one wife, and live chastely and temperately. Divorce 
and polygamy are prevented by their religion ; but if a 
wife remains barren during the first nine years of marriage, 
the husband may take a second wife. They worship one 
Supreme Being, whom they call the Eternal Spirit, or 
Yerd. The sun, moon, and planets, they believe to be 
peopled with rational beings, acknowledge light as the 
primitive cause of the good, darkness as that of evil, and 
worship fire, as it is said, from which they have received 
their name. But they themselves say, that they do not 
worship fire, but only find in it an image of the incompre- 
hensible God ; on which account they offer up their prayers 
before a fire, and maintain one uninterruptedly burning 
on holy places, which their prophet Zoroaster, they say, 
kindled 4000 years ago. Their holy book is called Zend- 
Avesta. One of the peculiarities of the Guebers is, that 
they do not bury their dead, but expose the bodies upon 
the towers of their temples, to be devoured by birds. 
They observe which part the birds first eat, from which 
they judge of the fate of the deceased. 



NESTO RUNS. 



453 



NESTORIANS, 

A sect of ancient Christians, still subsisting in some 
parts of Asia, whose distinguishing tenet is that Mary is 
not the mother of God. They take their name from Nes- 
torius, Bishop of Constantinople, whose doctrines were 
spread with much zeal through Syria, Egypt, and Persia. 

One of the chief promoters of the Nestorian cause was 
Barsumas, created Bishop of Nisibis, A. D. 435. Such 
was his zeal and success, that the Nestorians, who still re- 
main in Chaldea, Persia, Assyria, and the adjacent coun- 
tries, consider him alone as their parent and founder. By 
him Pherozes, the Persian monarch, was persuaded to ex- 
pel those Christians who adopted the opinions of the 
Greeks, and to admit the Nestorians in their place, putting 
them in possession of the principal seat of ecclesiastical 
authority in Persia, the see of Seleucia, which the patri- 
arch of the Nestorians has always filled, even down to our 
time. Barsumas also erected a school at Nisibis, from 
which proceeded those Nestorian doctors who in the fifth 
and sixth centuries spread abroad their tenets through 
Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and China. 

He differed considerably from Nestorius, holding that 
there are two persons in Jesus Christ, as well as that the 
Virgin was not his mother as God, but only as man. 

The abettors of this doctrine refuse the title Nestorians, 
alleging that it had been handed down from the earliest 
times of the Christian Church. 

In the tenth century, the Nestorians in Chaldea, whence 
they are sometimes called Chaldeans, extended their spirit- 
ual conquests beyond Mount Imaus, and introduced the 



454 



NESTORIANS. 



Christian religion into Tartary, properly so called, and 
especially into that country called Karit, and bordering 
on the northern part of China. The prince of that coun- 
try, whom the Nestorians converted to the Christian faith, 
assumed, according to the vulgar tradition, the name of 
John, after his baptism, to which he added the surname 
of Presbyter, from a principle of modesty ; whence it is 
said his successors were each of them called Prester John, 
until the time of Gengis Khan. But Moshcim observes, 
that the famous Prester John did not begin to reign in 
that part of Asia before the conclusion of the eleventh 
century. The Nestorians formed so considerable a body 
of Christians, that the missionaries of Home were indus- 
trious in their endeavors to reduce them under the papal 
yoke. Innocent IV. in 1246, and Nicolas IV. in 1278, 
used their utmost efforts for this purpose, but without suc- 
cess. Till the time of Pope Julius III., the Nestorians 
acknowledged but one patriarch, who resided first at Bag- 
dad, and afterwards at Mousul ; but a division arising 
among them, in 1551 the patriarchate became divided, at 
least for a time, and a new patriarch was consecrated by 
that Pope, whose successors fixed their residence in the 
city of Ormus, in the mountainous part of Persia, where 
they still continue, distinguished by the name of Simeon ; 
and so far down as the last century, these patriarchs per- 
severed in their communion with the Church of Rome, but 
seem at present to have withdrawn themselves from it. 
The great Xestorian pontiffs, who form the opposite party, 
and look with a hostile eye on this little patriarch, have, 
since the year 1559, been distinguished by the general 
denomination of Elias, and reside constantly in the city 
of Mousul. Their spiritual dominion is very extensive, 
takes in a great part of Asia, and comprehends also within 
its circuit the Arabian Nestorians, and also the Christians 



NESTORIANS. 



455 



of St. Thomas, who dwell along the coast of Malabar. It 
is observed, to the lasting honor of the Nestorians, that of 
all the Christian societies established in the east, they 
have been the most careful and successful in avoiding a 
multitude of superstitious opinions and practices that have 
infected the Greek and Latin Churches. About the mid- 
dle of the seventeenth century, the Romish missionaries 
gained over to their communion a small number of Nesto- 
rians, whom they formed into a congregation or church ; 
the patriarchs or bishops of which reside in the city of 
Amida, or Diarbeker, and all assume the denomination of 
Joseph. Nevertheless, the Nestorians in general persevere 
to our own times in their refusal to enter into the commu- 
nion of the Romish Church, notwithstanding the earnest 
entreaties and alluring offers that have been made by the 
Pope's legate to conquer their inflexible constancy. 

Nestorius, from whom the sect of Nestor i an Christians 
derive their name, was born in Germanica, a city of Syria. 
He received his education at Antioch, where he was like- 
wise baptized ; and soon after his baptism, he withdrew 
himself to a monastery in the suburbs of that city. Upon 
his being admitted to the order of priesthood, he quickly 
acquired so great a reputation by the eloquence of his 
preaching, and the regularity of his life, that by the Em- 
peror Theodosius he was deemed a fit person to fill the 
second see in the Christian Church, and was accordingly 
consecrated Bishop of Constantinople, in the year 429. 

In one of his first sermons after his promotion, he pub- 
licly declared his intention to make war upon heretics ; 
and with that intolerant spirit which has so often disgraced 
the preachers of the mild religion of Jesus, he called upon 
the emperor to free the earth from heretics, promising to 
give him heaven as a reward for his zeal. To this spiritual 
motive he added one that, though carnal, he possibly 



456 



NESTORIANS. 



judged of equal force : " Join with me," said he, " in war 
against them, and I will assist you against the Persians." 
Although the wiser and better part of his audience were 
amazed to see a man, before he had tasted (as Socrates 
expresses himself j the water of his city, declare that he 
would persecute all who were not of his opinion ; yet the 
majority of the people approved of this discourse, and 
encouraged him to execute his purpose. Accordingly, five 
days after his consecration, he attempted to demolish the 
church in which the Arians secretly held their assemblies; 
and he succeeded so far in his design, that these people, 
growing desperate, set it on fire themselves, and consumed 
with it some of the neighboring houses. This fire excited 
great commotions in the city, and Nestorius was ever after- 
wards called an incendiary. 

From the Arians he turned his persecution against the 
Novatians, but was stopped in his career by the interposi- 
tion of the emperor. He then let loose his fury upon 
those Christians of Asia, Lydia, and Caria, who celebrated 
the feast of Easter upon the 14th day of the moon ; and 
for this unimportant deviation from the Catholic practice, 
many of those people were murdered by his agents, both 
at Milctum and at Sardis. One cannot be sorry that such 
a relentless persecutor should himself be afterwards con- 
demned as a heretic, for holding an opinion which no man 
who speaks or thinks with philosophic accuracy will now 
venture to controvert. This obnoxious tenet, which pro- 
duced a schism in the Church, and was condemned by a 
general council, was nothing more than that " the Virgin 
Mary cannot with propriety be called the mother of God." 
The people being accustomed to hear this expression, were 
much inflamed against their bishop, imagining that he had 
revived the error of Paulus Samosetenus and Photinus, 
who taught that Jesus Christ was a mere man. The monks 
declared openly against him, and, with some of the most 



N ESTONIANS. 



457 



considerable men in Constantinople, separated themselves 
from his communion. Several bishops wrote to him earnest 
persuasives to acknowledge that Mary was the mother of 
God ; and when he would not comply, they procured his 
condemnation in the Council of Ephesus, which deprived 
him of his see. He then retired to his ancient monastery 
at Antioch, whence he was taken four years afterwards, 
by the emperor's orders, and banished in 435 to Tarsus. 
That city being taken and destroyed by the barbarians, he 
was removed to Panopolis, a city of Thebais; where he 
was not suffered to remain long, but was compelled to go 
from place to place, till, being in one of his journeys mor- 
tally bruised by a fall, death relieved him from the fury of 
his persecutors. 

If we examine such of his writings as remain, we shall 
find that he was very unjustly condemned. It appears 
that he rejected the errors of Ebion, Paulus Samosetenus, 
and Photinus ; that he maintained in express terms, that 
the divine Word was united to the human nature in Jesus 
Christ in the most strict and intimate sense possible ; that 
these two natures, in this state of union, make but one 
Christ and one person ; that the properties of the Divine 
and human natures may both be attributed to this person ; 
and that Jesus Christ may be said to have been born of a 
virgin, to have suffered and died ; but he never would ad- 
mit that God could be said to have been born, to have 
suffered, or to have died. When we consider that every 
person partakes of the substance of his mother, and that 
it is this which constitutes the parental and filial relation 
between them, it is indeed surprising that the expression 
4 'Mother of God" should ever have been admitted into the 
Christian Church, or that any man who understands the 
meaning of the words should condemn Nestorius for not 
having used them. 
39 



458 



PAGANS. 



PAGANS. 

Pagans arc the worshippers of many gods, the heathen, 
who were so called by the Christians, because, when Con- 
stantino and his successors forbade the worship of tho 
heathen deities in the cities, its adherents retired to tho 
villages {pagi, hence pagani, countrymen), where they 
could practise their ceremonies in secresy and safety. In 
the middle ages, this name was given to all who were not 
Jews or Christians, theirs being considered the only true 
religion and divine revelations; but, in more modern 
times, Mohammedans, who worship the one supreme God 
of the Jews and Christians, are not called pagans. The 
idea of heathenism ifl of early origin. Moses used every 
precaution to prevent an intercourse between the Hebrews 
and heathen nations, prescribed the renunciation of idola- 
try as a requisite to citizenship in the Hebrew state, and 
forbade any league with the Ammonites, Moabites, &c. 
When the kings relaxed in the observance of these regula- 
tions, the prophets raised their voice against the defection. 
The distinction between pagans and non-pagans, so far as 
claims to a revelation are concerned, is very slight, since 
there are many heathenish people who have traditions of 
revelations made to them. We also find in some religions 
of paganism (for example, with Zoroaster, Plato, and 
Socrates) pure and elevated notions, and precepts of 
morality, which would not disgrace even Christianity. 
Paganism has likewise her moral heroes, as well as Juda- 
ism and Christianity. And although St. Augustine de- 
clared that the virtues of the heathens were but splendid 
vices, yet this assertion is bv no means borne out by facts. 



PAGANS. 



459 



The true point of distinction is therefore to be placed in 
the recognition or denial of one universal, perfect Being, 
that is, in the reception of monotheism or polytheism. 
The apostle Paul speaks (Rom. i. 23) of a law of God 
written on the hearts of the gentiles or pagans, and declares 
that pagans who live by this divine law in their consciences, 
are a law unto themselves ; and that, to every man who 
does good, God will render "glory, honor, and peace, to 
the Jew first, but also to the gentile, for there is no respect 
of persons with God." (Rom. ii. 10, 15.) Clement of 
Alexandria, and many of the fathers, were of opinion that, 
as God had given prophets to the Jews, so he had raised 
up great men among the heathen, and thus rendered both 
capable of arriving at the enjoyment of divine happiness. 
These views, however, met with strong opposition. Augus- 
tine, although he acknowledged that the virtues of a 
Brutus, Decius, and Regulus, were subjects of admiration, 
and proper models of imitation, yet maintained the prin- 
ciple that all the noble and good actions of the pagans 
were done in the service of the devil, and from vain glory. 
His views obtained such an ascendency, that it came to be 
a generally received opinion that the hope of God's grace 
and eternal happiness depended on a belief in the doctrines 
of the church. Jerome adopted an intermediate principle, 
attributing to the heathens a willingness to receive the 
doctrines of the true church, should they become known 
to them. If this fides implieita, as it is called, be any- 
thing real, it can only be a desire and endeavor to know 
the truth and to act accordingly. Others have maintained 
the action of divine grace on the souls of heathens, inde- 
pendent of all instruction and knowledge on their part. 
The influence which the writings of Augustine exercised at 
the time of the Reformation, and on the Reformers, led to 
the reception of the dogma of the damnation of the pagans, 



4G0 



PAGANS OF CHINA. 



•which acquired a new development from the doctrine of 
predestination. Marmontel's Bclisaire was condemned by 
the Sorbonne, because it professed a belief in the salvation 
of the pagans. 



PAGANS OF CHINA. 

The primitive theology of China is supposed, by a num- 
ber of learned men, to agree in its essential parts "with the 
doctrine of the chosen people, before Moses, by the com- 
mand of God himself, had consigned the explanation of it 
to the sacred records. The King, or canonical books of 
the Chinese, everywhere inculcate the belief of a Supreme 
Being, the author and preserver of all things ; the princi- 
ple of everything that exists, and the father of all living; 
he is eternal, immovable, and independent ; his power 
knows no bounds ; his sight equally comprehends the past, 
present, and the future ; penetrating even into the inmost 
recesses of the heart. Heaven and earth are under his 
government ; all events, all revolutions, are the conse- 
quences of his will ; he is pure, holy, and impartial ; 
■wickedness offends his sight; but he beholds with an eye 
of complacency the virtuous actions of men. Severe, yet 
just, he punishes vice in a striking manner, even on the 
throne ; and often preeipitates from thence the guilty, to 
place upon it the man who walks after his own heart, 
whom he hath raised from obscurity. Good, merciful, and 
full of pity, he relents on the repentance of the wicked ; 
public calamities, and the irregularities of the seasons, are 
only salutary warnings, which his fatherly goodness gives 
to men to induce them to reform and amend. 

Some historians have also found in the Chinese religion 



PAGANS OF CHINA. 



461 



evident symptoms of the knowledge of the Trinity, as 
believed among Christians. 

The present religion of China is Pagan ; but it is said 
there are almost as many sects as persons among them. 
For as soon as a Chinese expects the least advantage from 
it, he is, without any consideration, to-day of one religion, 
to-morrow of another, or of all together. However, be- 
side the worship of the Grand Lama, there are three prin- 
cipal sects. 

I. The followers of Laokium, who lived five hundred 
years before Christ, and taught that God was corporeal. 
They pay divine honors to the philosopher Laokium ; and 
give the same worship, not only to many emperors, who 
have been ranked with the gods, but also to certain spirits 
under the name of Xamte, who preside over every ele- 
ment. Their morality consists in calming the passions, 
and disengaging themselves from everything which tends 
to disquiet the soul ; to live free from care, to forget the 
past, and not be apprehensive for the future. To remove 
the unavoidable fear of death, they pretend Laokium dis- 
covered an elixir, which confers immortality. They call 
this sect that of the Magicians, because the learned of it 
addict themselves to magic, and are believed to have the 
secret of making men immortal. 

II. The most predominant sect is that of Foe, who 
flourished a thousand years before our Saviour, and who 
became a god at the age of thirty years. This religion 
was transplanted from India to China, sixty-five years after 
the birth of Christ. A large number of altars, temples, 
or pagodas, are reared to this deity, some of which are 
magnificent to the highest degree, and a number of bonzes, 
or priests, consecrated to his service. He is represented 
shining in light, with his hands hid under his robes, to 
show that he does all things invisible. The doctors of 

39 * 



462 



PAGANS OF CHINA. 



this sect teach a double law ; the one external, the other 
internal. According to the external law, they say that all 
the good are recompensed, and the wicked punished, in 
places destined for each. They enjoin all works of mercy; 
and forbid cheating, impurity, wine, lying, and murder, 
and even the taking life from any creature whatever. For 
they believe that the souls of their ancestors transmigrate 
into irrational creatures, cither into such as they liked 
best or resembled most in their behavior, for which reason 
they never kill any such animals ; but while they live, feed 
them well, and when they die, bury them with splendor. 
They lay great stress upon acts of charity, and in building 
temples for Foe, monasteries for his priests, and providing 
for their maintenance, as the most effectual means to par- 
take of their prayers, penances, and other meritorious 
actions towards the atonement of their sins, and obtaining 
a happy transmigration. These priests pretend to know 
into what bodies the dead are transmigrated ; and seldom 
fail of representing their case to the surviving friends, as 
miserable or uncomfortable, that they may extort money 
from them to procure the deceased a passage into a better 
state. They also threaten the living with an unhappy 
transmigration, that they may procure money of them to 
obtain a happier one, or leave them to die in dread of the 
fatal change. 

The interior doctrine of this sect, which is kept secret 
from the common people, teaches a pure, unmixed atheism, 
which admits neither rewards nor punishments after death ; 
believes not in a providence, nor the immortality of the 
soul ; acknowledges no other God but the void, or no- 
tiling ; and which makes the supreme happiness of man- 
kind to consist in a total inaction, an entire insensibility, 
and a perfect quietude. 

III. A sect, which acknowledges for its master the phi- 



PAGANS OF JAPAN. 



463 



losopher Confucius, who lived five hundred years before 
our Saviour. This religion, which is professed by the lite- 
rati, and persons of rank in China and Tonquin, consists 
in a deep inward veneration for the God, or King of hea- 
ven, and in the practice of every moral virtue. They 
have neither temples, nor priests, nor any settled form of 
external worship : every one adores the Supreme Being in 
the way he likes best. 

Confucius did not dive into abstruse notions, but con- 
fined himself to speak with the deepest regard of the great 
Author of all beings, whom he represents as the most pure 
and perfect essence and fountain of all things ; to inspire 
men with greater fear, veneration, gratitude, and love of 
him; to assert his divine providence over all his creatures; 
and to represent him as a being of such infinite knowledge, 
that even our most secret thoughts are not hidden from 
him ; and of such boundless goodness and justice, that he 
can let no virtue go unrewarded, or vice unpunished. 

The Chinese honor their dead ancestors ; burn perfumes 
before their images; bow before their pictures; and invoke 
them as capable of bestowing upon them all temporal 
blessings. 



PAGANS OF JAPAN. 

The worship of the Japanese is Paganism, divided into 
several sects. 

Among the various sects in this island, the three follow- 
ing are most conspicuous : 

I. The Sinto, or ancient idol worship of the Japanese. 

II. The Budso, or foreign idol worship, introduced into 



464 



PAGANS OF JAPAN. 



Japan from the empire of China, and the kingdom of 
Siam ; and, 

III. The religion of their philosophers and moralists. 

I. The religion of the Sintos. This denomination have 
some obscure and imperfect notions of the immortality of 
the soul, and a future state of bliss and misery ; and yet 
worship only those gods who they believe are peculiarly 
concerned in tho government of the world ; for though 
they acknowledge a Supreme Being, whom they believe 
dwells in the highest heaven, and admit of some inferior 
gods, whom they place among the stars; yet they do not 
worship and adore them, nor have they any festivals sacred 
to them, thinking that beings so much elevated above man- 
kind will concern themselves but little about human affairs. 
They, however, swear by their superior gods, but they 
worship and invoke those gods alone whom they believe to 
have the sovereign control over this world, its elements, 
productions, and animals ; these, they suppose, will not 
only render them happy here, but by interceding for them 
at the hour of death, may procure them a happy condition 
in the next state of existence, in reward of their good 
conduct in the present state. Hence their dairis, or eccle- 
siastical emperors, being esteemed lineally descended from 
the eldest and most favored sons of these deities, are sup- 
posed the true and living images of their gods, and pos- 
sessed of such an eminent degree of holiness, that none 
of the people dare presume to appear in their presence. 

The Sintos believe that the soul, after quitting the body, 
is removed to the high subcelestial fields, seated just be- 
neath the thirty-three heavens, the dwelling-places of their 
gods ; that those who have led a good life find an imme- 
diate admission, while the souls of the wicked are denied 
entrance, and condemned to wander till they have expi- 
ated their crimes ; but they do not believe in a hell, or a 



PAGANS OF JAPAN. 



465 



place of torment. One of the essential points of their 
religion is, that they ought to preserve an inward purity 
of heart, and to practise or abstain from whatever the 
dictates of reason, or the express command of the civil 
magistrate, direct or forbid. 

The Sintos' religion enjoins abstaining from blood, from 
eating flesh, or being near a dead body ; by which a per- 
son is, for a time, rendered unfit to go to the temples, to 
visit holy places, and to appear in the presence of the 
gods. 

The other great points of their religion are, 1. A dili- 
gent observance of the solemn festivals in honor of their 
gods, which are very numerous. 2. Pilgrimages to the 
holy places at Isje ; that is, to the temple of Tensio-Dai- 
sin, the greatest of all the gods of the Japanese. The 
last essential doctrine of their religion is, that they ought 
to chastise and mortify their bodies ; but few of them pay 
much regard to this precept. 

II. The Budso, or foreign pagan worship introduced 
into Japan, probably owes its origin to Budhe, whom the 
Bramins of India believe to be Vishnu, one of their deities, 
who, they say, made his ninth appearance in the world, 
under the form of a man of that name. 

The most essential points of this religion are, that the 
souls of men and animals are immortal, and both of the 
same substance, differing only according to the bodies in 
which they are placed ; and that after the souls of man- 
kind have left their bodies, they shall be rewarded or pun- 
ished according to their behavior in this life, by being in- 
troduced to a state of happiness or misery ; that the de- 
grees of both are proportioned to the different degrees of 
virtue and vice. They call their heaven a state of eternal 
pleasure. Their God Armida is the sovereign commander 
of this blissful region ; and is considered as the patron 

2 E 



466 



PAGANS OF JAPAN. 



and protector of human souls, especially of those who are 
removed to a state of felicity. These maintain that lead- 
ing a virtuous life, and doing nothing contrary to the five 
commandments,* is the only "way to become agreeable to 
Armida, and to render themselves worthy of eternal hap- 
piness. 

On the other hand, all the vicious, whether priests or 
laymen, are, after death, sent to a place of misery to be 
tormented for a certain indefinite time, where every one is 
to be punished according to the nature and number of his 
crimes, the number of years he lived upon earth, his sta- 
tion there, and his opportunities for becoming good and 
virtuous. Yet they suppose the miseries of these unhappy 
souls may be greatly alleviated by the virtuous lives of 
their relations and friends ; and still more by the prayers 
and offerings of the priests to their great god Armida, 
who can prevail on the almost inexorable judge to treat 
the imprisoned souls with somewhat less severity than their 
crimes deserve, and to send them speedily again into the 
world. For they believe that, when vicious souls have 
expiated their crimes, they are sent back to animate such 
vile animals as resembled them in their former state of 
existence. From the vilest of these transmigrating into 
others and nobler, they at last are suffered again to enter 
human bodies, and thus have it in their power, either by 
their virtue and piety to obtain an uninterrupted state of 
felicity, or, by a new course of vices, once more to expose 
themselves to all the miseries of confinement in a place of 
torment, succeeded by a new unhappy transmigration. 

There are several sects of the Budso religion, all of 
which have their temples, their convents, and their priests. 

* Those five commandments are, 1. Not to kill anything that has 
life. 2. Not to steal. 3. Not to commit fornication. 4. To avoid 
lies, and. all falsehood. 5. Not to drink strong liquors. 



PAGANS OF JAPAN. 



467 



III. The religion of the philosophers and moralists is 
very different from that of the two former, for they pay 
no regard to any of the forms of worship practised in the 
country. The supreme good, say they, consists in the 
pleasure and delight that arises from the steady practice 
of virtue. They maintain that men are obliged to be vir- 
tuous, because nature has endowed them with reason, that 
by living according to its dictates, they might show their 
superiority to the irrational inhabitants of the earth. 
They do not admit of transmigration of souls, but believe 
that there is a universal soul diffused through all nature, 
which animates all things, and which reassumes departed 
souls, as the sea does the rivers. This universal spirit 
they confound with the Supreme Being. These philoso- 
phers not only admit of self-murder, but consider it as a 
heroic and commendable action, when it is the only means 
of avoiding a shameful death, or of escaping from the 
hands of a victorious enemy. 

They conform to the general customs of their country 
in commemorating their deceased parents and relations, by 
placing all sorts of provisions on a table provided for the 
purpose ; but they celebrate no other festivals, nor pay 
any respect to the gods of the country. 

There are innumerable temples and idols in this island, 
among which the temples of those who profess the Budso 
religion are the most remarkable, being distinguished for 
their stately height, curious roofs, and numerous orna- 
ments. One of the temples erected at Miaco is esteemed 
the most sumptuous in the empire. This temple is said to 
be as large as the church of St. Paul, London ; and con- 
tains many idols, among which is one of gilt copper, of a 
prodigious size, seated in a chair eighty feet broad, and 
seventy feet in height. The festivals of the Japanese are 
as numerous as their deities. The number of monasteries 



468 



LAMAISTS. 



is scarcely credible. The monks are either regulars or 
seculars. The regulars live in convents, some of which 
contain upwards of a thousand monks. The seculars are 
dispersed abroad, and live in private houses. The former 
are exceedingly abstemious, but the latter live in luxury 
and idleness. 

The Roman Catholic religion once made a considerable 
progress in this country, in consequence of a mission con- 
ducted by the Portuguese and Spanish Jesuits, in 1549, 
amongst whom the famous Saint Francis Xavier was em- 
ployed, but soon relinquished the service. There were 
also some Franciscan friars of Spain engaged at last. At 
first the undertaking proceeded with the most rapid suc- 
cess, but ended in a most tragical manner, owing, it is 
said, to the misconduct of the Jesuits, and their conspi- 
racy against the emperor. A persecution commenced of 
forty years' duration, which was terminated by a most 
terrible and bloody massacre, not to be paralleled in his- 
tory. After this the Portuguese, as likewise the Christian 
religion, were totally expelled the country, and the most 
effectual means taken for preventing their return. 



LAMAISTS. 

The name of the Grand Lama is given to the sovereign 
pontiff, or high-priest, of the Thibetian Tartars, who 
resides at Patoli, a vast palace on the mountain near the 
banks of Barampooter, about seven miles from Lahassa. 
The foot of this mountain is inhabited by twenty thousand 
lamas, or priests, who have their separate apartments 
around the mountain ; and, according to their respective 



LAM AISTS. 



469 



qualities, are placed nearer, or at a greater distance from, 
the sovereign pontiff. He is not only worshipped by the 
Thibetians, but also is the great object of adoration for the 
various tribes of heathen Tartars who roam through the 
vast tract of continent which stretches from the banks of 
the Wolga to Corea, on the sea of Japan. He is not only 
the sovereign pontiff, the vicegerent of the Deity on earth, 
but the more remote Tartars are said to absolutely regard 
him as the Deity himself, and call him God, the everlasting 
Father of Heaven. They believe him to be immortal, and 
endowed with all knowledge and virtue. Every year they 
come up from different parts to worship, and make rich 
offerings at his shrine. Even the emperor of China, who 
is a Mantchou Tartar, does not fail in acknowledgments to 
him in his religious capacity ; and he actually entertains, 
at a great expense in the palace of Pekin, an inferior 
Lama, deputed as his nuncio from Thibet. The Grand 
Lama, it has been said, is never to be seen but in a secret 
place of his palace, amidst a great number of lamps, sitting 
cross-legged on a cushion, and decked in every part with 
gold and precious stones ; where at a distance the people 
prostrate themselves before him, it not being lawful for 
any so much as to kiss his feet. He returns not the least 
sign of respect, nor ever speaks even to the greatest 
princes; but only lays his hand upon their heads, and 
they are fully persuaded they receive from thence a full 
forgiveness of all their sins. 

The Sunniasses, or Indian pilgrims, often visit Thibet 
as a holy place ; and the Lama always entertains a body 
of two or three hundred in his pay. Besides his religious 
influence and authority, the Grand Lama is possessed of 
unlimited power throughout his dominions, which are very 
extensive. The inferior Lamas, who form the most nu- 
merous, as well as the most powerful body in the state. 
40 



470 



LAMAISTS. 



have the priesthood entirely in their hands ; and besides, 
fill up many monastic orders, which are held in great 
veneration among them. The whole country, like Italy, 
abounds "with priests ; and they entirely subsist on the 
great number of rich presents which are sent them from 
the utmost extent of Tartary, from the empire of the Great 
Mogul, and from almost all parts of the Indies. 

The opinion of those who are reputed the most orthodox 
among the Thibetians is, that when the Grand Lama seems 
to die, either of old age or infirmity, his soul, in fact, only 
quits a crazy habitation to look for another, younger or 
better ; and it is discovered again in the body of some 
child by certain tokens, known only to the Lamas or 
priests, in which order he always appears. 

Almost all the nations of the East, except the Moham- 
medans, believe the metempsycliosis as the most important 
article of their faith ; especially the inhabitants of Thibet 
and Ava, the Peguans, Siamese, the greatest part of the 
Chinese and Japanese, and the Monguls and Kalmucks, 
who changed the religion of Schamanism for the worship 
of the Grand Lama. According to the doctrine of this 
metempsychosis, the soul is always in action, and never at 
rest ; for no sooner does she leave her old habitation than 
she enters a new one. The Dalay being a Divine person, 
can find no better lodging than the body of his successor ; 
or the Fo, residing in the Dalay Lama, which passes to 
his successor ; and this being a god to whom all things 
are known, the Dalay Lama is therefore acquainted with 
everything which happened during his residence in his 
former body. 

This religion is said to have been of three thousand 
years' standing; and neither time, nor the influence of 
men, has had the power of shaking the authority of the 



B E. AM IN S. 



471 



Grand Lama. This theocracy extends as fully to temporal 
as to spiritual concerns. 

Though in the grand sovereignty of the Lamas, the 
temporal power has been occasionally separated from the 
spiritual by slight revolutions, they have always been 
united again after a time ; so that in Thibet the whole 
constitution rests on the imperial pontificate in a manner 
elsewhere unknown. For, as the Thibetians suppose the 
Grand Lama is animated by the god Shaka, or Fo, who 
at the decease of one Lama transmigrates into the next, and 
consecrates him an image of the divinity, the descending 
chain of Lamas is continued down from him in fixed 
degrees of sanctity ; so that a more firmly established 
sacerdotal government, in doctrine, customs, and institu- 
tions, than actually reigns over this country, cannot be 
conceived. The supreme manager of temporal affairs is 
no more than the viceroy of the sovereign priest, who, 
conformably to the dictates of his religion, dwells in divine 
tranquillity in a building that is both temple and palace. 
If some of his votaries, in modern times, have dispensed 
with the adoration of his person, still certain real modifi- 
cations of the Shaka religion are the only faith they profess, 
the only religion they follow. The state of sanctity which 
that religion inculcates, consists in monastic confidence, 
absence of thought, and the perfect repose of nonentity. 



BRAMINS. 

Brama is the name of the first person in the Trinity, 
or Trimurti, of the Hindoos, consisting of Brama, the 
creator, Vishnu, the preserver or redeemer, and Siva, the 
destroyer. He is represented with four heads and as 



BRAMINS. 



many arms, and the swan is consecrated to him. His 
name signifies knoivledge of the laws, in allusion to his 
creative power. He is the god of the fates, master of life 
and death, and, by some, has been represented as the 
supreme eternal power ; but he is himself created, and is 
merely the agent of the Eternal One. He is believed to 
die, according to some, annually, or, according to others, 
after a longer period, and to rise again. His character is 
no better than that of the Grecian Jupiter. He is con- 
sidered as the author of the Vedas, and as the lawgiver 
and teacher of India. The worship of Brama is regarded 
as the oldest religious observance in that country. 

The Bramins are the first of the four castes of the 
Hindoos. They proceeded from the mouth of Brama, 
which is the scat of wisdom. They form the sacred or 
sacerdotal cast, and its members have maintained a more 
absolute and extensive authority than the priests of any 
other nation. Their great prerogative is that of being the 
sole depositories and interpreters of the Vedas or sacred 
books. There are seven subdivisions of the Bramins, 
which derive their origin from seven penitents, personages 
of high antiquity and remarkable purity, who are said to 
have rebuked the gods themselves for their debaucheries. 
The great body of the Bramins pay equal veneration to 
the three parts of the mysterious trinity, but some attach 
themselves more particularly to one person of the triple 
godhead. Thus the Vishnuites are distinguished by an 
orange-colored dress, and the mark called nama on their 
foreheads. The devotees of Siva wear the lingam, and 
are distinguished from the former by their great abste- 
miousness. A Bramin should pass through four states. 
The first begins at about seven, when the duty of the 
young novice, or BracJtmacari, consists in learning to read 
and write, studying the Vedas, and becoming familiar with 



BRAMINS. 473 

the privileges of his cast, and all points of corporeal purity. 
Thus he is taught his right to ask alms, to be exempted 
from taxes, from capital, and even corporeal punishment. 
Earthen vessels belonging to Bramins, when used by pro- 
fane persons, or for certain purposes, must be broken. 
Leather and skins of animals, and most animals them- 
selves, are impure, and must not be touched by them. 
Flesh and eggs they are not allowed to eat. The Bramin 
is also taught to entertain a horror of the defilement of 
the soul by sin ; and rules for purification by ablution, 
penances, and various ceremonies, are prescribed. The 
second state begins at his marriage, when he is called 
Grihastlia. Marriage is necessary to his respectability. 
His daily duties become more numerous, and must be more 
strictly performed. Regular ablutions, fasting, and many 
minute observances, become requisite. The Bramins, how- 
ever, engage in secular employments, political, commercial, 
&c. The third state is that of the Vana-Prasthas, or 
inhabitants of the desert, which is now, however, seldom 
reached. They were honored by kings, and respected 
even by the gods. Retiring to the forest, green herbs, 
roots, and fruit were their food ; reading the Vedas, 
bathing morning, noon, and evening, and the practice of 
the most rigorous penances, were prescribed. " Let the 
Yana-Prastha," says Menou, in the Institutes, "slide back- 
wards and forwards on the ground, or stand the whole day 
on tip-toe, or continue rising and sitting down alternately ; 
in the hot season, let him sit exposed to five fires ; in the 
rain, let him stand uncovered ; in the cold season, let him 
wear wet garments ; then, having stored up his holy fires 
in his mind, let him live without external fire, without a 
shelter, wholly silent, and feeding on roots and fruit. 
When he shall have thus become void of fear and sorrow, 
and shaken off his body, he rises to the divine essence." 
40* 



474 



BUDDHISTS. 



The fourth state is that of a Sminyasi, in which new and 
severer penances are to be performed. Suppressing the 
breath, standing on the head, and other such ceremonies 
are performed, till the devout patient rises to a participa- 
tion of the divine nature. The sanctity and inviolability 
of a Bramin are maintained in the eyes of his countrymen 
by the most severe penalties. The murder of one of the 
order, robbing him, &c, are inexpiable sins; the killing 
of his cow can only be expiated by a painful penance. 
To some travellers it appears that the number of Bramins 
respectable for knowledge and virtue is very small ; that 
the great body of them are devoted to ambition, intrigue, 
and voluptuousness, and that their character is disgraced 
by avarice, meanness, and cruelty. Their charity extends 
only to those of their own caste. The objects of their 
worship, besides their innumerable gods, are almost every 
species of animals, and a variety of malignant demons. 
The transmigration of souls is one of their essential doc- 
trines, and they believe in the existence of a hell. Some 
of the ceremonies of the Braminical worship are horrible ; 
some are in- re licentious than the orgies of Bacchus. 
The sacrifices commonly consist of vegetables, but animals 
are sometimes sacrificed, and the burning of widows is a 
relic of the horrid practice of offering human victims. 

Harrell computes the number of Bramins in all Asia at 
80,000,000. 



BUDDHISTS. 

Buddha was the founder of the very ancient religion 
called after him. His worship, after the Bramins had put 
a stop to it in India, spread to Japan, Thibet, and China, 
where, as well as in Ceylon, it exists at the present day. 



BUDDHISTS. 



475 



Ritter, in his Vorhallen Uuropdischer Volkergeschichten 
(Introduction to the Histories of the European Nations), 
advances the opinion that the Buddhists also migrated to 
the North- West, to the shores of the Black Sea, to Colchis, 
to the modern Mingrelia, and thence to Thrace, where 
they laid the foundation of the civilization of the Pelasgi 
and Hellenes. Even in the doctrine of Asa, in the ex- 
treme north, traces of Buddhism have been thought to 
appear. According to Abel Remusat, Buddha, whose his- 
torical name was Tshakia-muni, was born under the reign 
of Tshao-Wang, of the dynasty of Tsheu, 1029 B. C, and 
died under the reign of Mou-Wang, 950 B. C. Before his 
death, he intrusted his disciple Mahakaya, a Bramin in 
the kingdom of Makata, which lay in the centre of India, 
with his mysteries. This Mahakaya, who lived under 
Hio-Wang, 950 B. C, is the first saint or patriarch of 
Buddhism, which was left by him to his successor, Ananta. 
The Japan Encyclopedia enumerates thirty-three patri- 
archs, including Mahakaya, in chronological succession, 
each of whom chose his successor, and transmitted to him 
the secret doctrine of Tshakia-muni, who was afterwards 
worshipped as a god, under the name of Buddha. Several 
of them died (or, to use the language of the Buddhists, 
emigrated) voluntarily in the flames. 

Among them, Maming, the successor of Buddha (by the 
Chinese called Phu-sa ; in Sanscrit, Deva-Bodhisatua), 
who gave names to the gods of the second class, was wor- 
shipped as his son, born from his mouth, because he per- 
fected the doctrine of Buddha by his own philosophy, 
which is a metaphysical allegorical mysticism. His epoch 
must be fixed, according to the above-mentioned work, in 
332, under the reign of Hian-wang, 618 years after the 
death of Tshakia-muni. 

The twenty-eighth patriarch, Bodhidhorma, was the last 



476 



BUDDHISTS. 



who lived in Hindostan. He afterwards fixed his residence 
in China, near the famous mountain Sung. He died 
A. D. 495. The secret of his doctrine was left by him to 
a Chinese, who was the twenty-ninth patriarch. After 
him, the above-mentioned book gives the names of four 
Chinese, who succeeded to the same dignity. The last of 
them died A. D. 713. Their history, like that of many 
other saints, is mixed with fables ; their manner of living 
was the same as what the ancients report to us of the 
(1 vninosophists and Samaneans. They devoted themselves 
to religious exercises and constant contemplation, and 
condemned themselves to the most severe abstinence ; nay, 
several of them scaled their belief in the transmigration 
of souls with a voluntary death. 

From that Indian patriarchate originated, A. D. 706, 
the sacerdotal dignity, which is common in China and 
among the Monguls, with the title spiritual prince of the 
law. These priests are, at the same time, a sort of con- 
fessors to the emperors. From this priesthood afterwards 
sprung the hereditary dignity of Grand Lama in Thibet ; 
and, in process of time, the whole hierarchical system, 
when the monastical life of the Buddhists required regular 
superiors, or inferior lamas. 

Besides many other monuments of the ancient worship 
of Buddha, there are two particularly remarkable — the 
ruins of the gigantic temple Boro-Budor, in Java, with 
works of sculpture ; and the five large, subterranean halls, 
called Pantsh-Pandu, probably an old temple of the 
Buddhists, near the city of Bang, on the way from Guzurat 
to Malwa. Tradition ascribes these astonishing works of 
ancient Indian architecture and sculpture, which far sur- 
pass the skill of the modern Hindoos, to the Pandus, the 
heroes of Indian mythology. 

Harrel computes the number of Buddhists in all Asia at 
295,000,000. 



PAGANS IN AFRICA. 



477 



PAGANS IN AFEICA * 

The natives of Africa universally believe in a Supreme 
Being, and have some ideas of a future state. They address 
this being by a fetishe or fetish, which is a sort of charm 
or manner of conducting their worship. The term is often 
applied to whatever represents their divinities. 

The negroes of Congo believe in a good and an evil prin- 
ciple, which are both supposed to reside in the sky. The 
former sends rain, the latter withholds it ; but they do not 
seem to consider either of them as possessing any influence 
over human affairs. After death they all take their place 
in the sky, and enjoy a happy existence, without any regard 
being paid to their good or bad actions while here below. 

Each town has a grand kissey, or presiding divinity. It 
is the figure of a man, the body stuck with feathers, rags, 
and bits of iron, and resembles nothing so much as one of 
our scarecrows. The chenoo of Gooloo had a kissey so re- 
doubtable that if any person attempted to shoot at it, he 
would fall down dead, and the flint would drop out of the 
musket. This powerful divinity was the figure of a man, 
about two feet high, rudely carved in wood, and covered 
with rags. 

Kolloh is the name of a great spirit, who is supposed to 
reside in the vicinity of Yangroo, in Western Africa. He 
makes his abode in the woods, and is rarely seen except on 
mournful occasions, such as the death of the king, or some 

* Much valuable information respecting the religion of the tribes 
in the interior of South Africa, will be found in Dr. Livingston's 
Travels and Explorations in South Africa, published by J. W. Brad- 
ley, Philadelphia. 



478 P A G A X S IX AFRICA. 

of their Lead men, or when a person has been buried with- 
out the usual ceremonies of dancing, drinking palm-wine, 
&c, in remembrance of their departed friends. 

The Kolloh is made of bamboo sticks in the form of an 
oval basket, about three feet long, and so deep that it goes 
on to the man's shoulders. It is covered with a piece of 
net, and stuck all around with porcupine quills on the nose. 
It has a frightful appearance, and has a great effect in 
exciting the terror of the inhabitants. 

A certain man pretends to have some very intimate in- 
tercourse with this Beelzebub, and therefore he is called 
by the spirit to take the Kolloh on his head, and to go 
about with it on certain occasions, to see that the various 
ceremonies of the country are strictly observed, and if any 
are absent, he seeks them out and drives them to the place 
of assembly. 

The Kolloh-man carries a stick in his hand, to show his 
authority ; and to give notice of his coming he rings a bell, 
which is fixed inside of the Kolloh, or basket. These Kolloh- 
men are a set of plunderers, who disturb the peace, and 
greatly deceive the ignorant natives. 

The fetishes of Whidah may be divided into three classes : 
the serpent, tall trees, and the sea. The serpent is the 
most celebrated, the others being subordinate to the power 
of this deity. This snake has a large, round head, beauti- 
ful, piercing eyes, a short, pointed tongue, resembling a 
dart : its pace is slow and solemn, except when it seizes on 
its prey, then very rapid ; its tail sharp and short, its skin 
of an elegant smoothness, adorned with beautiful colors, 
upon a light gray ground ; it is amazingly familiar and 
tame. Rich offerings are made to this deity ; priests and 
priestesses appointed for its service ; it is invoked in ex- 
tremely wet, dry, or barren seasons ; and, in a word, on all 
the great difficulties and occurrences of life. 



PAGANS IN AFRICA. 



479 



The people of Benin believe in an invisible deity, who 
created heaven and earth, and governs them with abso- 
lute power ; but they conceive it needless to worship him, 
because he is always doing good without their services. 
They also believe in a malignant deity, to whom they sacri- 
fice men and animals, to satiate his thirst of blood, and 
prevent him from doing them mischief. But they have 
innumerable objects of worship, as elephants' teeth, claws, 
bones, dead men's heads, or any trifle that chance throws 
in their way, to which they make a daily offering of a few 
boiled yams, mixed with palm oil. On great occasions they 
sacrifice a cock, treating the divinity with the blood only, 
and reserving the flesh for themselves. Persons of high 
rank give an annual feast to their gods, at which multitudes 
of cattle are offered to the idols, and eaten by the people. 
Each offers his own sacrifices, without giving the priests 
any sort of trouble. 

The religion of the Dahomans, like that of the neighbor- 
ing kingdoms, consists of such a mass of superstition as 
can hardly be described. The objects of their devotion are 
the sun and moon, various animals and trees, and other 
substances. The Portuguese word fetico, or, as the English 
pronounce it, fetish, signifying witchcraft, has been adopted 
by most of the maritime natives of Africa, as well as by 
the Europeans who trade thither. Of their amulets, or 
charms, the principal is a scrap of parchment, containing 
a sentence of the Koran, which the natives purchase from 
the Moors who visit the country, and which they hang up 
in their apartments, and decorate with a variety of rude 
images. Among the objects of their idolatrous worship is 
a species of snake or serpent, called Daboa ; they put it in 
a basket, and place it in the temple destined for it, where 
they secretly feed it with rats, but pretend that it lives 
upon air. The temple is served by priestesses, supported 



480 



PAGANS IN AFRICA. 



at the king's expense. Every year there is a festival in 
honor of this serpent, at which the grandees assist, and for 
which the king supplies the necessary articles. It lasts 
usually seven days, during which time the people abandon 
themselves to drinking, music, and dancing. Great faith 
is placed in the serpent. Those who labor under bodily 
pains, apply the animal to the part affected, and pregnant 
women offer prayers to it for a favorable delivery. The 
tiger is also held in veneration, and there is a temple dedi- 
cated to the devil, or bad demon. Notwithstanding these 
superstitions, the people have a confused idea of a Supreme 
Being, all-powerful and infinite, whom they endeavor to 
propitiate by their fetish; but pay him no other worship, 
as they are convinced that he is too good to do them any 
evil. 

The Ashantees are, perhaps, the most polished nation 
of negroes to be met with in Western Africa. They are, 
however, gross idolaters, and most lavish of human blood 
in sacrifices at their funerals and festivals. They say that, 
at the beginning of the world, God created three black 
men, and three white, with the same number of women, and 
placed before them a large box, or calabash, and a sealed 
paper. The black men had the privilege of choosing, and 
they took the box expecting it contained everything ; but 
when they opened it, they found only gold, iron, and other 
metals, of which they did not know the use. The white 
men opened the paper, which told them everything. This 
happened in Africa, where God left the black men in the 
bush. The white men he conducted to the water side, 
where he taught them to build a ship, which carried them 
to another country. From hence they returned, after a 
long period, with various merchandise, to trade with the 
black men, who might have been superior people if they 
had chosen right. The kings and governors are believed 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



481 



to dwell with God after death, enjoying to eternity the 
luxuries and state they possessed on earth : the paradise 
of the poor affords only a cessation from labor. There are 
two orders of men attached to the inferior deities called 
fetishes. Every family has its domestic fetish, to which 
they offer yams, &c. ; some of them are wooden figures ; 
others are of fanciful forms, and different materials. When 
the Ashantees drink, they spill a little of the liquor on the 
ground, as an offering to the fetish ; and when they rise 
from their chairs or stools, their attendants hastily lay the 
seat on its side, to prevent the devil, or evil spirits, from 
slipping into their master's place. This evil spirit is sup- 
posed to be white ; doubtless from the same motives or 
feeling which induces Europeans to say that he is black : 
for, indeed, who would wish to resemble the devil, either 
in color or shape, however some of us may not object to a 
resemblance to him in character ? 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR* 

The latest, and, no doubt, the most correct account of 
the superstitious rites and ceremonies of the people of 
Madagascar, is to be found in Ellis's History of Madagas- 
car. From that work, the greater part of the information 
about to be given has been obtained. 

It has long been thought that the people of Madagascar 

* A particular account of the religion of the natives of Madagascar, 
and of the introduction of Christianity into that island, and the per- 
secutions suffered by the native Christians up to the present time, 
is given in Ellis's "Three Visits to Madagascar/ 7 published by 
J.W.Bradley, Philadelphia. 

41 2f 



482 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



were a people favorably prepared by circumstances to 
receive Christianity, for they have usually been repre- 
sented as being free from popular idols and religious 
observances, to any extent that would render them averse 
to the influences of a better religion than their own. This 
impression, however, only arose from a want of that know- 
ledge which has latterly been painfully obtained. 

The same feelings and passions which move in the 
breasts of other people, are at work in the hearts of the 
Malagasy, and they, moved by the same hopes and fears, 
and joys and sorrows, that characterize humanity, have, in 
in their destitution of the light of revelation, sought a 
refuge to arm them against evil, and to inspire them with 
hope, in a belief of charms. They cannot regard creation 
around them without being convinced of an unseen and 
powerful agency, and being unable to account for effects 
visible to their eyes, and possessing no impression of a 
superintending Providence, they consider that charms 
alone could have effected what is above their apprehension. 

But while the Malagasy believe in ody, (charms,) they 
have a conviction of the infallibility of the sikidy, or di- 
vination, by which the charm must be decided, and to this 
must also be added, an undefined belief in some superior, 
though unknown power, whose will the diviner's art is 
about to make known. The art of the diviner is considered 
as certain in its result, though the premises from which 
that result issues are avowedly laid in chances. The 
Mohammedan is not more wedded to the doctrine of fate 
than the Malagasy to their " vintana" — a stern and 
unbending destiny. 

Though Madagascar has no visible objects of worship 
calculated to claim veneration, and charm the senses to 
any great degree, and recognizes no order of priests, yet 
it is not without its idols, its ceremonies, its sacrifices, and 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



483 



its divinations. It has, too, its altars, its vows, and its 
forbidden things, (forbidden because hateful to the sup- 
posed genius of the place,) as well as its mythology, oaths, 
and forms of benediction. No people surpass the Malagasy 
in credulity ; ghosts, witches, apparitions, legendary won- 
ders, and feats of ferocious giants and monsters, have their 
full influence over their minds. The people appeal to a 
superior but unknown power to protect them from sor- 
cery, and to purge the land from the evils of witchcraft, 
the innocent blood is shed of numberless human victims, 
who are persecuted, poisoned, speared, strangled, or hurled 
over a fatal precipice. Being without divine truth, the 
Malagasy cling tenaciously to the superstitions of their 
forefathers. 

Though they speak of God, pray to God, appeal to God, 
and bless in the name of God, yet is the notion they form 
of God so vague, uncertain, and, indeed, contradictory, 
that it can be hardly said with truth that they know any- 
thing of the creator, preserver, and redeemer of mankind. 
"Radama, king of Madagascar, was, a few years ago, 
offered the knighthood of the order of St. Patrick, which 
he declined, assigning as his reason that he could not take 
the oath which required him to say that he believed in God, 
meaning the God of the Europeans." There is no doubt 
that the real belief of the Malagasy concerning God, is 
far from being what the terms found in their language 
would seem to imply. 

The terms for God in the native language are Andria- 
manitra and Zanahary, or Andria-nanahary, but the 
notions entertained respecting them are of the most con- 
fused kind ; whatever is great, or grand, or new, or extra- 
ordinary, is at once called Andriamanitra. Rice, money, 
thunder and lightning, with earthquakes, and other things, 
are called God. A book is god, a deceased king is god, 



434 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



velvet is son of god, and silk is god in the highest degree. 
"It is related of Radama, that in a heavy thunder-storm 
which occurred one evening, he amused himself in firing 
off some pieces of cannon. The British agent went to 
him, and inquired his reason for doing so. ' Oh !' said 
the king, 'we are answering one another — both of us are 
gods. God above is speaking by his thunder and lightning, 
and I am replying by my powder and cannon.' Mr. Ilastie 
pointed out to him the presumption of his conduct, and the 
king ordered the firing to cease." 

The Malagasy believe that when the body dies, the mind 
becomes "levona," — i.e. vanished, invisible, and that the 
life becomes "rivotra," — air, or wind, a mere breeze. 
Some of the inhabitants on parts of the coast believe in 
the existence of four superior divinities, or lords, who 
govern the four quarters of the earth — in the interior of 
the country this belief is regarded as a fable. The doc- 
trine of a future state of retribution is not known to the 
Malagasy. No conceptions are entertained of the relation 
existing between the creator and the created, and no moral 
responsibility impressed on the mind. Chicanery, lying, 
and cheating, are considered but very light offences, com- 
pared with trampling on a grave, eating pork in places 
where it is forbidden, running after an owl, or wild cat, 
or preparing any kind of enchantment. 

The Malagasy practise the ceremony of circumcision, 
purification, and offering sacrifice ; but they have no tra- 
ditions of the creation, the fall of man, the deluge, the 
favored people of God, or of the Messiah. The doctrine 
of a Mediator, the birth of a Redeemer, the salvation of 
man, the renewal of the heart, the resurrection, the general 
judgment, and the glory to be revealed, are unknown to 
them. 

There are twelve or fifteen principal idols in the vicinity 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



485 



of Tananariva, which excite the religious dread of the 
people, and four of these are regarded as superior to the 
rest. They are supposed to exert more influence in pro- 
tecting and benefiting the sovereign and the country than 
the others, and are therefore national idols. Different 
clans arid districts have their own idols, which are little 
known beyond their immediate neighborhood. The idols 
of Imerina have no power among the Sakalavas, nor have 
the Sakalava gods any influence in Imerina. 

Not only has every clan its own idol, but every house 
and family its ody, or charm ; many wear crocodiles' 
teeth as receptacles of their ody, and in this they put their 
trust in all circumstances of sickness and peril, in life and 
in death. 

It is not known whether the kings who raised the national 
idols to their present elevation, instituted any public 
worship, for none is now offered to them ; yet still they 
are called God, and regarded as such. A native Malagasy 
thus describes the idol gods : — " The idols are called God, 
prayed to, praised, thanked, highly regarded, honored, 
and lifted up : they are said to be that which causes to 
live, and causes to die, and are supposed to see the future, 
the past, and the present, and to be able to cast down the 
thunderbolts, pour down the hail, to remove the disease, 
and inflict curses, and to assemble the snake tribe against 
all who calumniate them. It is said, also, that their 
calumniators are strangled by them. They are called 
4 means of life,' and are kept in boxes." The serpents of 
Madagascar are very numerous ; they are regarded as the 
particular agents of the idols, and on this account are 
looked upon with much apprehension. The national idols 
of Madagascar are kept very secret : to endeavor to see 
them is a crime. No strangers are allowed to approach 
the houses where they are preserved, so that the materials 
41* 



486 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



of which they are made and the forms given to them can- 
not be described here. When one of them is carried in 
public, its appearance is that of a small image wrapped in 
red cloth. It is elevated on a pole, that it may be borne 
along with greater ease, and at the same time make an 
impression on the awe-struck multitude. Though it is 
carried along in this public manner, the people are forbid- 
den to gaze upon it — an inconsistency that can hardly be 
accounted for. The sovereign gives the red velvet in 
which the idol is enveloped. A Malagasy idol was given 
on a certain occasion, and its appearance was of the most 
extraordinary kind. 

The household gods of Madagascar are of many kinds ; 
anything which strikes the fancy, or allures the eye, will 
do for a god. One man worshipped a piece of silver about 
the size of a walnut, shaped like a bullock ; he called it 
his "bullock of money." An old chief had hung up in 
his dwelling an odd-looking bushy plant ; this was his god. 

The names of the principal idols already alluded to are 
as follows : — 

1. Rakelimalaza. G. Rafaronatra. 11. Razanaharitsimandry. 

2. Raraahavaly. 7. Ratsimahavaly. 12. Ralehifotsy. 

3. Ramanjakatsiroa. 8. Rabehaza. 13. Ralehimalemalema. 

4. Rafantaka. 9. Ravalolona. 14. Ratsisimba. 

5. Ramanjaibola. 10. Rafohitanana. 15. Ralandrema. 

Of these fifteen, the two first are by far the most important. 

At a distance of seven miles eastward of Tananariva, is 
situated the village of Ambohimanambola ; this place is 
the residence of Rakelimalaza. The whole of the hill 
occupied by the village is looked upon as sacred. The 
signification of the name of the idol is " Renowned although 
diminutive." 

There are certain animals and objects which may not be 
admitted within the sacred precincts, and they have the 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



487 



name of Fady. Every idol has its own particular Fady. 
Gunpowder, pigs, onions, a shell-fish called sifotra, robes 
that are striped or spotted, goats, horses, cats, owls, with 
fire-arms, and anything of a black color, form, for the 
most part, the Fady of Rakelimalaza. The benefits sup- 
posed to be conferred by this idol are, — rendering the 
sovereign invisible and victorious, defending those who 
cross rivers from crocodiles, protecting true worshippers 
from sorcery, and extinguishing fires. 

Ramahavaly ranks next in importance ; the signification 
of his name is, " Capable of replying :" his residence is at 
Ambohitany, though a house is prepared at the capital for 
his occasional residence. There is a steep hady or fosse 
round the idol-house, and no stranger is allowed to draw 
near to it, lest the power of the charms of the idol should 
suffer injury. The Fady of articles forbidden to approach 
Ramahavaly, are the flesh of animals killed at funerals, 
and other things. This idol most strictly forbids the 
killing of serpents. 

Ramahavaly is considered as the physician of Imerina, 
and is frequently taken from one place to another to arrest 
the progress of disease. A ceremony, called Miafana, 
takes place at the capital, almost every year, wherein a 
guardian of the idol officiates as priest, and sprinkles the 
people assembled as they pass by, in the presence of the 
idol, with honeyed water. While the sprinkling goes on, the 
priest cries out, " Take courage, you, your wives and chil- 
dren ! You have Ramahavaly ! take courage for your- 
selves and your property ! He is the preserver of life ; and 
should diseases invade, he will suddenly arrest them, and 
prevent them coming near to injure you." 

The name of the idol kept at the capital is Raman- 
jakatsiroa, — i.e., "There are not two sovereigns," or, 



488 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



" The king is supreme." This idol is, however, considered 
to be inferior to both Rakelimalaza and Raniahavaly. 

The idol called Ranakandriana, on a high mountain at 
Andringitra, is supposed to have imparted the knowledge 
of divination to the Malagasy ; and he is said, also, to reply 
when any one addresses him. It is not an improbable sup- 
position that this belief has been brought about by the echo 
of the place, every sound being reverberated very distinctly 
among the rocks. Some years ago, King Radama resolved to 
visit Ranakandriana, to ascertain whether it was really true 
that an answer was given by him to any question proposed. 
No sooner had the monarch entered the dark cavern of the 
idol, and saluted the invisible divinity, than he heard a low 
and solemn voice reply to him. He then presented a small 
donation of money, but immediately seized the hand that 
was gently put forth to receive it. This hand he held fast, 
crying out, " This is no god — this is a human being !" At 
his command the impostor was then dragged forth ; and 
thus the spell was broken, and the disbelief of the king in 
the practised superstition confirmed. 

There are many inferior idols, and among them Keli- 
manjaka-lanitra, ''Little, but ruling the heavens;" Ma- 
nara-mody, "The restorer to one's home;" Rakapila, 
" Half dishevelled ;" Randrano-vola, " The silver water ;" 
Randrano-mena, " The red water ;" Ramandroany, "The 
governor of the past part of the day;" Rafortribe, and 
others. Ramanandroany is considered potent in punishing 
an unknown thief; and the owner of the lost property thus 
addresses him : "As to whoever stole our property, Ra- 
manandroany ! kill him by day, destroy him by night, and 
strangle him ! Let there be none among men like him : 
let him not be able to increase in riches — not even a farth- 
ing — but let him pick up his livelihood as a hen pecks rice- 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



489 



grains : let his eyes be blinded, and bis knees be swollen, 
Ramanandroany !" 

When any one wishes to obtain a favor from an idol, he 
accompanies his request with a present and a vow. The 
keeper of the idol receives the offering in the name of the 
idol, and retains it for his own benefit. Whatever be the 
object of desire, it is stated to the keeper, who repeats it 
to the idol ; and if the request be favorably received, a 
wisp of straw is rapidly whirled round by the keeper ; but 
if the straw move not, it is a sign that the idol is not pro- 
pitious. If the request be for a safe return from war, or 
prosperity in any enterprise, or the birth of a child, the 
vow made with the request must be fulfilled as soon as may 
be after the benefit has been obtained. To fulfil the vow 
is to bring the promised offering : this is called Manala- 
voady, the signification of which is, " to fetch away, or 
remove the vow." 

Sacrifices and offerings are not compulsory. Each indi- 
vidual gives what he pleases, according to his riches or 
poverty. In some places the idol has the head, the blood, 
and the fat only, while the carcass is devoured by the sacri- 
ficers and their friends : — this is a very convenient arrange- 
ment for the sacrificers. 

There are many occasions on which the idols are pub- 
licly exhibited, and their antipathies are then proclaimed ; 
the following is one of these proclamations: — "Practise 
abstinence well ; let each of you take good heed to avoid 
what is prohibited by his idol, whose antipathies are the 
pig ; — let him take heed that it have no access to the vil- 
lages of his abode. The snail, musket, and onions, let them 
not be borne there ; and the goat and the horse, suffer them 
not to ascend his villages ; and in the time of thunder (that 
is, summer), the children shall not play at kicking each 
other blue. Ye shall not throw dirt at each other; for these 



490 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



things are his antipathies, so do not these things, but take 
good heed." 

The processions of the idols are curious. In one of them 
the first man carries the symbol of the idol on the top of a 
pole twenty feet in height. Round the symbol, and round 
the top of the pole, is wrapped scarlet velvet, which hang 
down like the skirts of a child's doll. The next man bears 
a bullock's horn, filled with honey-water, while in his right 
hand he holds a bunch of twigs, to be used in sprinkling. 
Then come fifty fine young men, each one carrying in his 
left hand a bundle of grass containing a serpent ; his right 
hand is left free, that lie may seize the reptile with it when 
he pleases. These young men walk two abreast, and 
brandish their arms about continually. When the proces- 
sion arrives at any place considered to be affected with 
sorcery or evil of any kind, it is sprinkled to purify it, and 
preserve it from harm ; and when any fence or building is 
approached that is repugnant to the idol, a small part of it 
is removed, as a sign that it must be taken down ; and with 
this requirement the owner of it is obliged to comply. 

It was once thought that no human victims were slain, 
but this impression is incorrect. Human sacrifices were 
offered in former times in the province of Vangardrano. 
An immolation took place every Friday, and chiefs and 
principal men were often slain as a more costly sacrifice to 
the blood-thirsty Moloch who presided. The victims were 
speared, and devoured by dogs and birds. These sacrifices 
were not, strictly speaking, offered directly to the idol. 
The victims were slain before an enormous pole, on the top 
of which ody, or charms, were suspended, and the incan- 
tation and sacrifices were, both together, expected to work 
wondrous effects. 

There are two ceremonies connected with the religious 
rites of Ankova, called Faditra and Afana. The first is 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



491 



anything chosen by the sikidy for the removal of diseases : 
it may be ashes, a sheep, cut money, or a pumpkin. The 
priest reckons upon it all the evils that may be hurtful to 
the person for whom it is made, and charges the Faditra 
to take them away forever. If the Faditra be ashes, the 
wind is allowed to blow it away ; if money, it is cast into 
deep water ; if a sheep, it is carried to a great distance on 
the shoulders of a man who runs along, complaining all 
the while of the evils the Faditra is carrying away j and 
if it be a pumpkin, it is carried to a distance, and dashed 
in pieces against the ground. 

The Afana is performed at the grave of a person lately 
buried, and consists of slaughtering cattle and feasting, 
accompanied with firing of muskets or cannon. The skulls 
of the slaughtered cattle are fixed on poles, at the head 
of the tomb. This is done to take evil from the dead, that 
he may repose in peace. The last kind act which can be 
performed for the dead is the ceremony of the Afana. 

The term Vazimba has three significations, but in its 
strictest sense it designates the aborigines of the interior 
of Madagascar. The graves of the Vazimba are numerous, 
and to violate them in the slightest degree is a very heavy 
crime. So terribly tenacious and revengeful are the ghosts 
of the Vazimba said to be, that an accidental stumble 
against one of their resting-places would bring down a 
terrible doom on the inadvertent offender. 

There are two characters attributed to the Vazimba : 
When a Vazimba grants what is asked of him, he is called 
masina — holy, forgiving, and effective; when he does not 
grant it, and occasions evil, he is called masiaka — fierce 
and implacable. 

To convince the Malagasy of the folly of their fears 
respecting the Vazimba, the missionaries cut off a branch 
from a tree growing near the most popular Vazimba grave, 



492 



PAGANS OF MADAGASCAR. 



and also carried away one of the stones. This absolutely 
terrified some young men who were present, and they 
doubted not that some terrible accident would avenge the 
impiety, or that the Yazimba would appear to resent the 
affront offered to the tomb. Day after day the missiona- 
ries inquired if the Yazimba had appeared, and the young 
men were convinced that their fears were groundless. 
When, however, the missionaries asked them whether their 
parents were convinced that no danger was to be appre- 
hended, they replied — "No! our parents say that you 
white people have some strong charms which the Vazimba 
are not able to resist." 

Reports were circulated, after the death of king Radama, 
that he was seen one night in his garden, dressed in one 
of the uniforms buried with him in his silver coffin, and 
riding on one of his best horses. Old Andrianamba, one 
of the principal ministers, was immediately sent by the 
queen, attended by many priests, to ask Radama why he 
came again to disturb them. The priests had with them 
the idols and sikidy, and they sacrificed a bullock on the 
occasion. The priests inquired of Radama whether they 
had not buried property enough in his tomb ? and whether 
he did not turn his back upon them of his own accord, for 
they had not driven him away. It seems that this atten- 
tion, in the opinion of the Malagasy, appeased the ghost 
of the old monarch, and it came again no more. It is not 
known what is the origin of the term sikidy. The word 
means, among the Malagasy, a certain kind of divination, 
to which they are devotedly attached. It is not astrology, 
nor is it necromancy. It has nothing to do with the flight 
of birds, the inspection of the entrails of slaughtered ani- 
mals, nor the interpretation of dreams. It partakes neither 
of the nature of magic, legerdemain, nor ordinary incanta- 
tion. It is the mode of working a particular process with 



PAGANS OF POLYNESIA. 



493 



beans, straw, rice, or sand. The rules for this are fixed 
and invariable, and the result is considered certain. 

Missionary efforts have been successfully made in Mada- 
gascar ; schools have been formed, and a Malagasy Bible 
has been printed : but since the death of King Radamn, 
the queen has prohibited the profession of the Christian 
faith by the natives ; indeed, the profession of Christianity 
and the observance of Christian ordinances are punishable 
with death. At the present time a strong persecution is 
carried on against the native Christians, and the missiona- 
ries have left the island. A young woman named Rassa- 
lama has been cruelly put to death. She was severely 
flogged for several days before her life was taken. Rafa- 
ralahy, a young man, has also been put to death for pro- 
fessing the Christian faith. He died with great firmness 
and constancy. The reported death of Rafaravavy, who 
was accused to the government of possessing the Holy 
Scriptures, and reading them, is not correct. There is now 
but little prospect of the superstitious rites and ceremonies 
of Madagascar being soon exchanged for the Christian 
faith. 



PAGANS OF POLYNESIA. 

Polynesia is a name given by geographers to the great 
body of islands scattered over the Pacific ocean, between 
Australasia and the Philippines, and the American conti- 
nent. It extends from lat. 35° N. to 50° S. ; and from 
Ion. 170° to 230° E. ; an extent of 5000 miles from north 
to south, and 3600 from west to east. It includes, there- 
fore, the Sandwich Islands, the Marquesas, Navigators, 
42 



494 



PAGANS OF POLYNESIA. 



Society, Mulgrave, Friendly, Ladrone, and Pelew Isles, 
the Carolines, Pitcairn's Island, &c. 

A general similarity in respect to the objects of religious 
worship, as well as the forms of idolatrous and superstitious 
practices, obtains throughout the whole of Polynesia ; 
although some differences may be found between groups 
of islands, and even between islands belonging to the same 
group. 

The supreme deity of Polynesia, who is generally 
regarded as the creator of the world, and the parent of 
gods and men, has different names in different groups. 
By the Tahitians, he is called Taaroa ; by the Hawaiians, 
Tanaroa ; and by the inhabitants of the western isles, 
Tangaroa. According to one of the legends of the Tahi- 
tian mythology, Taaroa was born of Night, or proceeded 
from Chaos, as did his consort Ofeufeumaiterai. Oro, the 
great national idol of Raitea, Tahiti, Eimeo, and some 
other islands, was the son of the foregoing. Oro took a 
goddess to wife, who became the mother of two sons. 
These four male and two female deities constituted their 
divinities of the highest rank. This was the catalogue 
furnished the missionaries by the priests of Tahiti. Other 
gods of high and uncreated order, however, are mentioned, 
as Raa, Tane, &c. Besides the above, they had numerous 
other inferior deities. 

The image of Taaroa cannot well be described. It may 
be stated, however, in respect to one, which was taken 
from the temple at Rurutu, that it bore some resemblance 
to the human figure. It was about four feet high, and 
twelve or fifteen inches broad, and was carved out of a solid 
piece of close, white, durable wood. On his face and body 
a great number of images were formed, denoting the 
number of gods which had proceeded from him ; the image 
was hollow, and within was found a number of small idols. 



PAGANS OF POLYNESIA. 



495 



In the Sandwich Islands there is a resemblance among 
all their idols. The head has generally a horrid appear- 
ance, the mouth being large, and usually extended wide, 
exhibiting a row of large teeth, resembling the cogs in the 
wheel of an engine, and adapted to excite terror rather 
than inspire confidence. Some of these idols are of stone ; 
others are composed of wicker work covered with red 
feathers. 

The Polynesian temples are of three classes — natural, 
local, and domestic. In the first are deposited their prin- 
cipal idols, and in and around them are held their great 
festivals ; the second belong to the several districts ; the 
third are appropriated to the worship of their household 
gods. In the South Sea islands the name of their temples 
was Marae ; these were buildings of a rude construction, 
and resembled oratories more than temples. 

The worship of the Polynesians consists of prayers, 
offerings, and sacrifices. In their prayers, they address 
their gods either in a kneeling posture, cross-legged, or 
crouching. Like the Pharisees in the days of our Saviour, 
they extend their supplications to a great length, and use 
many vain repetitions, thereby hoping to recommend 
themselves to the special notice of the deity. Their offer- 
ings consist of fowls, fishes, beasts of the field, fruits of 
the earth, and manufactures of various kinds. When 
animals are offered, they are generally whole ; but fruits 
are commonly dressed. Portions of the offerings are con- 
sidered sacred, and may not be eaten ; the remainder is 
monopolized by the priests, and other sacred persons, who 
are privileged to eat of the sacrifices. Human victims 
were formerly offered in great numbers, especially in 
seasons of war, at great national festivals, during the ill- 
ness of their rulers, and on the erection of their temples. 



496 



PAGANS OF POLYNESIA. 



When an individual had been selected for sacrifice, the 
family to which he belonged was said to be tabu, i. e. 
devoted ; and, hence, if another victim was wanted, it was 
likely to be taken from such a family. When the person 
was about to be sacrificed, he was generally murdered at a 
moment when he was little expecting the stroke. As soon 
as dead, his body was placed in a long basket, and carried 
to the temple. Here it was offered, not by burning it, 
but by placing it before the idol. After a variety of cere- 
monies by the priests, among which one was to pluck out 
an eye of the victim, which, being placed on a plantain leaf, 
was handed to the king, who passed it to his mouth, as if 
he would eat it ; the body was wrapped in a basket of 
cocoa-nut leaves, and frequently deposited on the branches 
of a neighboring tree. Here having remained a consider- 
able time, during which it became dry and shrivelled, it 
was taken down, and the bones were buried beneath the 
wide pavement of the Marae. 

The religious system of the Samoans differs essentially 
from that which obtained at the Tahitian, Society, and 
other islands. They have neither maraes, nor temples, 
nor altars, nor offerings ; and, consequently, none of the 
barbarous and sanguinary rites observed at the other 
groups. On this acconnt the Samoans were considered 
an impious race. When the people of Rarotongo upbraided 
a person who had neglected the worship of the gods, they 
called hin "a godless Samoan." 

The objects worshipped by them were of three kinds — 
their deified ancestors, their idols, and their etus. Many 
of their ancestors were deified for conferring supposed 
benefits upon mankind. It was believed that the world 
was once in darkness ; but that one of their progenitors, 
by an absurd process, created the sun, moon, and stars. 
For this he was worshipped, until the light of Christianity 



PAGANS OF POLYNESIA. 



497 



dawned upon them. The chief of Aitutaki gave a short 
account of the relics of idolatry. The following selection 
may give the reader a general idea of the whole : — 

An idol named Te-rongo, one of the great deities, called 
a kai-tangata, or man-eater. The priests of this idol were 
supposed to be inspired by the shark. 

Tangaroa, the great national god of Aitutaki, and of 
almost all the adjacent islands. He holds the net with 
which he catches the spirits of men as they fly from their 
bodies, and a spear with which he kills them. 

A rod, with snares at the end, made of the fibres of 
the cocoa-nut husk, with which the priest caught the spirit 
of the god. It was used in cases of pregnancy, when the 
female was ambitious that her child should be a son, and 
become a famous w r arrior. It was also employed in war 
time to catch the god by the leg, to secure his influence 
on the side of the party performing the ceremony. 

Ruanuu, a chief from Raiatea, who, ages ago, sailed in 
a canoe from that island, and settled at Aitutaki. From 
him a genealogy is traced. He died at Aitutaki, and was 
deified, as Te atua taitai tere, or the conductor of fleets. 
The Raiateans have several interesting traditions connected 
with Ruanuu. To this idol was appended an old tattered 
silk handkerchief, and the foot of a wine-glass ; both of 
which were obtained from Captain Cook's vessel, and 
dedicated to Ruanuu, the "god or guide of fleets," for 
conducting that celebrated navigator to their shores. 

Taau, with his fan, &c, the god of thunder. When the 
thunder pealed, the natives said that this god was flying, 
and producing this sound by the flapping of his wings. 
42* 2g 



498 



PAGANS OF LAPLAND. 



PAGANS OF LAPLAND. 

From the time that so large a portion of Lapland fell 
under the dominion of Sweden, repeated attempts were 
made to convert the natives to the Christian faith ; and 
the same object was diligently prosecuted by the Danish 
government. The Laplanders, however, continued to retain 
a strong attachment to their ancient mythology ; and even 
so late as the middle of the eighteenth century, a great 
part of the nation secretly worshipped idols while publicly 
professing the Christian religion. 

To these idols were presented various offerings and sacri- 
fices. Upon any change of habitation, libations were made 
of whey or milk, to conciliate the guardian divinity of the 
place ; and of brandy to the Lares or household gods, who 
were supposed to reside under the fire-place. To conci- 
liate the favor of the deities to their children, sacrifices of 
sheep or deer were offered, before the child was born : a 
dog was buried alive at the moment of the birth ; and some 
other animal killed when the infant was at the breast. 
Offerings and sacrifices were usually made for the removal 
of epidemic disorders, for success in hunting, &c. In these 
cases, sometimes the whole of the victim was presented, 
sometimes only a part, sometimes merely the bones, while 
the blood was sprinkled upon staves, which were left on 
the spot, or mingled with the waters of an adjacent river 
or lake. The liver of a bear, the horns and other parts 
of a deer, taken in the chase, were very frequently conse- 
crated to the deity of the place. 

The Laplanders, according to Picart, worship their gods 
under the form of a tree, or block of wood, the top of which 



PAGANS OF LAPLAND. 



499 



they form into a rude resemblance of a man's head. In 
the head they were wont to drive a large nail, to which was 
fastened a flint stone, that he might make himself a fire when- 
ever he found one needful. Sometimes their god was raised 
upon a kind of table, which served in capacity of an altar. 
Their domestic deity, or household god, they represented 
under the form of a large stone, carved in a rude manner, 
and bearing some resemblance to a human face. The sa- 
crifices which were offered to these idols were presented by 
a privileged class of men, named Noaaids, who divided the 
victims with great expertness, and wore at the time of sacri- 
ficing a peculiar habit. 

The Laplanders still retain much of their ancient super- 
stitious spirit, even in the Christian rites which they have 
adopted. They particularly regard the sacrament as a 
powerful charm to preserve them from the attempts of evil 
spirits. It is not long since they used to take a cloth with 
them to church, into which they were accustomed to spit 
out the sacramental bread, which they wrapped up with 
great care, and afterwards divided into as great a number 
as possible of small crumbs. One of these crumbs was 
given to every one of their cattle, in the full persuasion 
that the herd would thus be secure from all injury. Their 
very deficient acquaintance with Christianity may, in some 
measure, be ascribed to the very inefficient manner in 
which they are instructed. It has generally been the prac- 
tice of the Missionaries and pastors to address the natives 
by means of an interpreter, and the attempts of the Danish 
government to remedy this defect have hitherto proved 
unsuccessful. 



500 



PAGANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



PAGANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

The aborigines of New England not only believed in a 
plurality of gods who made and govern the several nations 
of the world, but they made deities of everything they ima- 
gined to be great, powerful, beneficial, or hurtful to man- 
kind ; yet they conceived an almighty Being, who dwells in 
the southwest regions of the heavens, to be superior to all 
the rest. This almighty Being they called Kichtan, who 
at first, according to their tradition, made a man and a 
woman out of a stone ; but, upon some dislike, destroyed 
them again, and then made another couple out of a tree, 
from whom descended all the nations of the earth : but how 
they came to be scattered and dispersed into countries so 
remote from one another, they cannot tell. They believed 
their supreme God to be a good being, and paid a sort of 
acknowledgment to him for plenty, victory, and other bene- 
fits. But there is another power, which they call Hoba- 
mocko (i. e., the devil), of whom they stood in greater awe, 
and worshipped merely from a principle of fear. The im- 
mortality of the soul was in some sort universally believed 
among them. When good men die, they said their spirits 
go to Kichtan, where they meet their friends, and enjoy 
all manner of pleasures. When wicked men die, they go 
to Kichtan also ; but are commanded to walk away, and to 
wander about in restless discontent and darkness for ever. 

The original inhabitants of Canada, like other heathen, 
had an idea of a supreme Being, whom they considered as 
the creator and governor of the world. It is said that most 
of the nations which speak the Algonquin language, give 
this being the appellation of the Great Hare, but some call 



PAGANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



501 



him Michabou, and others Atahocan. They believe that 
he was born upon the waters, together with his whole court, 
who were composed of four-footed animals, like himself; 
that he formed the earth of a grain of sand taken from the 
bottom of the ocean ; and that he created men of the bodies 
of dead animals. Some mention a god of the waters, who 
opposed the designs of the Great Hare, who is called the 
great Tiger. They have a third called Matcomek, whom 
they invoke in the winter season. 

According to the Iroquois, in the third generation there 
came a deluge, in which not a soul was saved ; so that, in 
order to repeople the earth, it was necessary to change 
beasts into men. Besides the first Being, or Great Spirit, 
they hold an infinite number of genii, or inferior spirits, 
both good and evil, who have each their peculiar form of 
worship. They ascribe to these beings a kind of immen- 
sity and omnipresence, and constantly invoke them as the 
guardians of mankind ; and they only address themselves 
to the evil genii, to beg of them to do them no hurt. They 
believe in the immortality of the soul, and say that the 
region of their everlasting abode lies so far westward, that 
the souls are several months in arriving at it, and have vast 
difficulties to surmount. The happiness that they hope to 
enjoy is not believed to be the recompense of virtue only, 
but to have been a good hunter, brave in war, &c, are the 
chief merits which entitle them to their paradise : this they 
and other American natives describe as a delightful coun- 
try, blessed with perpetual spring, whose forests abound 
with game, whose rivers swarm with fish, where famine is 
never felt, but uninterrupted plenty shall be enjoyed with- 
out labor or fatigue. 

The Indians of Virginia gave the names of OJcee, Qui- 
occos, or JCiwasa, to the idol which they worshipped. 
These names might possibly be so many epithets, which 



502 



PAGANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



they varied according to the several functions they as- 
cribed to this deity, or the different notions they might 
form to themselves of it in their religious exercises and 
common discourses. Moreover, they were of opinion that 
this idol is not one sole being, but that there were many 
more of the same nature, besides the tutelary gods. They 
gave the general name of Quioccos to all these genii, or 
beings, so that the name of Kiwasa might be particularly 
applied to the idol in question. 

These savages consecrated chapels and oratories to this 
deity, in which the idol was often represented under a 
variety of shapes. They even kept some of these in the 
most retired part of their houses, to whom they communi- 
cated their affairs, and consulted them upon occasion. In 
this case they made use of them in the quality of tutelary 
gods, from whom they supposed they received blessings on 
their families. 

The sacerdotal vestment of their priests was like a 
woman's petticoat plaited, which they put about their necks, 
and tied over their right shoulder ; but they always kept 
one arm out to use it as the occasion required. This cloak 
was made round at the bottom, and descended no lower 
than the middle of the thigh ; it was made of soft, well- 
dressed skins, with the hair outwards. 

These priests shaved their heads close, the crown ex- 
cepted, where they left only a little tuft, that reached from 
the top of the forehead to the nape of the neck, and even 
on the top of the forehead. They here left a border of 
hair, which, whether it was owing to nature, or the stiff- 
ness contracted by the fat and colors with which they 
daubed themselves, bristled up, and came forward like the 
corner of a square cap. 

The Virginians had a great veneration for their priests ; 
and the latter endeavored to procure it by daubing them- 



PAGANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



503 



selves all over in a very frightful manner ; dressing them- 
selves in a very odd habit, and tricking up their hair after 
a very whimsical manner. Everything they said was con- 
sidered as an oracle, and made a strong impression on the 
minds of the people ; they often withdrew from society, 
and lived in woods or in huts, far removed from any habi- 
tation. They were difficult of access ; and did not give 
themselves any trouble about provisions, because care was 
always taken to set food for them near their habitations. 
They were always addressed in cases of great necessity. 
They also acted in the quality of physicians, because of 
the great knowledge they were supposed to have of nature. 
In fine, peace or war was determined by their voice, nor 
was anything of importance undertaken without first con- 
sulting them. 

They had not any stated times nor fixed days on which 
they celebrated their festivals, but they regulated them 
only by the different seasons of the year. As, for instance, 
they celebrated one day on the arrival of their wild birds, 
another upon the return of the hunting season, and for the 
maturity of their fruits ; but the greatest festival of all 
was at harvest time. They then spent several days in 
diverting themselves, and enjoyed most of their amuse- 
ments, such as martial dances and heroic songs. 

After their return from war, or escaping some danger, 
they lighted fires and made merry about them, each having 
his gourd-bottle or his little bell in his hand. Men, women, 
and children often danced in a confused manner about 
these fires. Their devotions in general consisted only of 
acclamations of joy, mixed with dances and songs ; except 
in seasons of sorrow and affliction, when they were changed 
into howlings. The priests presided at this solemnity, 
dressed in their sacerdotal ornaments, part of which were 
the gourd-bottle, the petticoat above mentioned, and the 



504 



PAGANS OF MEXICO. 



serpents' or weasels' skins, the tails of which were dexter- 
ously tied upon their heads like a tiara or triple-crown. 
These priests began the song, and always opened the reli- 
gious exercise, to which they often added incantations, part 
of the mysteries of which were comprehended in the songs 
above mentioned. The noise, the gestures, the wry faces, 
in a word, everything, contributed to render these incanta- 
tions terrible. 



PAGANS OF MEXICO 

The deities of the ancient Mexicans are said to have 
exceeded two thousand, who had their respective temples, 
ceremonies, and sacrifices. There was hardly a street 
without its tutelary divinity, nor was there scarcely a dis- 
ease which had not its peculiar altar, to which the Mexicans 
nocked in order to be healed. Their principal deity was 
Vitzliputzlij whom they considered the sovereign lord of 
all things, and creator of heaven and earth. The greatest 
god after Vitzliputzli was the Sun. Another of their 
divinities was Tlaloch, whom some writers confound with 
Tescalipuca. But these were considered brothers, of equal 
strength, and so similar in disposition, that the sovereign 
power of war was divided between them. Tescalipuea was, 
however, more appropriately the god of penance, whom 
the Mexicans invoked in seasons of adversity. The Mer- 
cury and Plutus of the Mexicans, the former of whom 
was sometimes called Quitzalcoalt, was represented under 
a human shape, except that it had the head of a bird, with 
a painted paper mitre upon its head, and a scythe in its 
hand. The body of it was covered with jewels of extra- 
ordinary value. Besides the foregoing, the Mexicans 



PAGANS OF MEXICO. 



505 



worshipped various other deities, among whom we shall 
mention only Tozi, a beautiful woman, for whom, at her 
death, Vitzliputzli procured divine honors. Nearly all 
their divinities were clothed with terror, and delighted in 
vengeance. The figures of serpents, of tigers, and of other 
destructive animals, decorated their temples. Fasts, mor- 
tifications, and penances, all rigid, and many of them 
excruciating to an extreme degree, were the means which 
they employed to appease the wrath of the gods. But of 
all offerings, human sacrifices were deemed the most ac- 
ceptable. At the dedication of the great temple at 
Mexico, it is reported there were 60,000 or 70,000 human 
sacrifices. The usual amount, of them was about 20,000. 

When the bloody sacrifices of the Mexicans took place, 
the victims about to be slain were assembled at a charnal- 
house on a terrace. A priest, holding in his hand an idol 
made of wheat-maize and honey, drew near to these un- 
happy wretches, and presenting it to each of them, cried 
out at the same time, " There is your god !" 

This done, they withdrew, going off on the other side 
of the terrace, when the victims were immediately brought 
upon it, being the place appointed for the sacrifice. Six 
ministers of the idol here slaughtered these victims ; and 
having torn out their hearts, they threw the bodies down 
the staircase, from the top to the bottom of the terrace. 

They never sacrificed less than forty of these victims at 
a time ; and those nations who either bordered on, or were 
tributary to, the Mexicans, imitated them in this bloody 
worship. 

Another religious ceremony, which indeed does not seem 
so barbarous as the former, was the duel of the victim, if 
we may give this name to the liberty he was allowed of 
defending himself against the priest who was to sacrifice 
him. The captive, whose feet were tied to a stone, parried 
43 



506 



PAGANS OF MEXICO. 



the instrument with which the priest struck at him, and 
even attacked him in his turn. If he had the good fortune 
to conquer the priest, he was released, and considered as 
a brave man ; but if the priest came off conqueror, he first 
killed him, then stripped off his skin, and had his limbs 
dressed and served up at one of those meals called by 
them their religious meals. 

The high priest was called Tapizlin in the Mexican lan- 
guage. It is pretended that his dignity was equal to that 
of the pope. He wore on his head a crown of beautiful 
feathers of various colors, with golden pendants, enriched 
with emeralds, at his cars, and a small blue tube, similar 
to that of the god of penance, ran through his lip. He 
was clothed in a scarlet robe, or rather mantle. The 
vestments of their priests were frequently changed accord- 
ing to the different seasons or festivals. 

The priesthood of Vitzliputzli was hereditary, and that 
of the other gods elective. Children were often destined 
from their most tender years to the service of idols, and 
officiated as clerks, and singing boys, when but mere 
striplings. The priests used to incense four times every 
day the god, whose ministers they were ; but at midnight, 
the principal ministers of the temple rose to perform the 
nocturnal office, viz., to sound a trumpet and horn for a 
considerable time, and to play on certain instruments, 
accompanied with voices, which together celebrated the 
praises of the idol. After this, the priest, whose turn it 
was, took the thurible, saluted the idol, and incensed it, 
himself being clothed in a black mantle. In fine, after 
the incensing was over, they all went together into a 
chapel, where they practised all those rigorous penances 
which have been already described. 

The Mexicans, at the end of every month, which among 
them consisted of twenty days, used to observe a solemn 



PAGANS OF MEXICO. 



507 



day of devotion, mixed with rejoicings. They then sacri- 
ficed some captives, and ran up and down the streets 
clothed in the skins of those miserable victims that had 
been just flayed. They danced, they sang, they collected 
alms for the priests, the giving of which among them, as 
in other places, was looked upon as an effect of real piety. 
The great festival of Vitzliputzli was celebrated in the 
month of May, two days before which, the nuns used to 
make a figure of maize and honey, representing that god. 
Then having dressed it in as magnificent a manner as 
possible, they seated it on an azure throne, which was 
supported by a kind of shaft. The nuns, who on that 
festival used to call themselves the sisters of Vitzliputzli, 
carried it in procession on their shoulders, to the area 
before the temple, where the young monks before cited 
received the idol, and, after having paid homage to it, 
carried it also on their , shoulders to the steps of the 
sanctuary. 

The festival of Tescalipuca was celebrated the nineteenth 
of the same month, when the priests granted the people a 
remission of their sins. At the same time they sacrifice a 
captive, which we may almost consider as an imperfect 
image of the death which our blessed Saviour suffered for 
the redemption of mankind. 

The Mexicans used to celebrate a jubilee every four 
years, which was nothing more than the feast of penance, 
such as we have already described, except that it was more 
solemn, there being at that time a more general and 
plenary remission of sins. We are assured that the Mexi- 
cans sacrificed many human victims at this season. And 
the youth used to make a kind of challenge, who should 
first, and in one breath, get to the top of the temple. This 
enterprise was a very difficult one, since it gained applause 
to all those who had the glory of coming first to the goal, 



508 



PAGANS OF MEXICO. 



not to mention that they were distinguished from the rest 
of their countrymen, and, moreover, had the privilege of 
carrying off the sacred viands, of which they made the 
same use as Catholics do of relics. 

Forty days before the feast of Quitzalcoalt, the mer- 
chants purchased a slave of a very fine shape, who, during 
that time, represented the deity to whom he was to be 
sacrificed as a victim on the day of the festival ; but they 
first washed him in the lake of the gods, which was the 
name they gave to the water which fitted him for the fatal 
apotheosis which ended with his death. 

Marriage was solemnized by the authority of the priests, 
and a public instrument was drawn up, in which were men- 
tioned the particulars of the wife's fortune, which the hus- 
band was obliged to return in case of separation. After 
their having agreed upon the articles, the couple went to 
the temple, where one of the sacrificing priests examined 
their resolutions by certain precise questions appointed for 
that purpose. He afterwards took up the husband's mantle 
and the woman's veil, and with one of his hands tied them 
together at one corner, to signify the inward tie of the 
wills. They then returned to their house, bound in this 
manner, accompanied by the sacrificing priest. Then they 
went and visited the hearth or fire, which they looked upon 
as the mediator of all disputes between man and wife. 
They used to go seven times round it, successively, the 
sacrificing priest walking before ; after which ceremony 
they both sat down, in order to be equally warmed by the 
heat of the fire, which gave the perfection to marriage. 

Burials and all funeral rites were regulated by their 
priests. They generally buried their dead in their gardens 
or houses, and commonly chose the courtyard for that pur- 
pose ; they sometimes buried them in those places where 
they sacrificed to the idols. In fine, they frequently burned 



PAGANS OF MEXICO. 



509 



them, after which they buried their ashes in the temples, to- 
gether with their movables, their utensils, and all they 
thought might be useful to them in the next world. They 
used to sing at funerals, and even made feasts on those 
occasions, which custom, how ridiculous soever it may be, 
some Christian nations have not been able to persuade 
themselves to lay aside. Above all, they buried their great 
lords in a very magnificent manner, and used to carry 
their bodies with great pomp and a numerous train into 
the temples. The priests walked first with their pans of 
copal, singing funeral hymns with a melancholy tone, 
accompanied with the hoarse and mournful sound of flutes. 
They lifted the body several times on high, while they were 
sacrificing those who were appointed to serve the illustrious 
dead. The domestics were put to death to keep their mas- 
ters company. It was a testimony of great affection, but 
very common among the lawful wives, to solemnize, by their 
deaths, the funerals of their husbands. They buried a great 
quantity of gold and silver with the deceased for the ex- 
pense of his journey, which they imagined was long and 
troublesome. The common people imitated the grandees 
in proportion to their substance. The friends of the de- 
ceased came and made presents to him, and talked to him 
as if he were still living ; the same ceremonies were prac- 
tised whether they burned or buried the dead. "We must 
not omit to state that they carried with them the achieve- 
ments and trophies of the deceased, in case he were a man 
of quality, and that the priest who read the funeral service 
was dressed so as to set forth the glory of the idol whom 
the nobleman represented. The funeral lasted ten days. 

The city of Mexico is said to have contained nearly 2000 
small temples, and 360 which were adorned with steeples. 
The whole empire of Mexico contained about 40,000 tem- 
ples, endowed with very considerable revenues. For the 
43* 



510 



PAGANS OF PERU. 



service in the grand temple of Mexico itself, above 5000 
priests were appointed ; and the number in the whole em- 
pire is said to have amounted to nearly a million. The 
whole priesthood, excepting that of the conquered nations, 
was governed by two high priests, who were also the oracles 
of the kings. Besides the service in the temple, their clergy 
were to instruct the youth, to compose the calendars, and 
to paint the mythological pictures. The Mexicans had also 
priestesses, but they were not allowed to offer up sacrifices. 
They likewise had monastic orders, especially one, into 
which no person was admitted under sixty years of age. 



PAGANS OF PERU. 

The Peruvians, previously to being governed by their 
Incas, worshipped a great number of gods, or rather genii. 
There was no nation, family, city, street, or even house, 
but had its peculiar gods ; and for this particular reason, 
that they thought none but the god to whom they imme- 
diately devoted themselves was able to assist them in time 
of need. They worshipped herbs, plants, flowers, trees, 
mountains, caves, beasts, adders ; in fine, everything that 
appeared wonderful in their eyes was thought worthy of 
adoration. 

These ancient idolaters of Peru offered not only the fruits 
of the earth and animals to these gods, but also their cap- 
tives, like the rest of the Americans. It was their custom 
to sacrifice their own children, whenever there was a scarcity 
of victims. 

Some other idolaters offered their own blood to their 
deities, which they drew from their arms and thighs, accord- 



PAGANS OF PERU. 



511 



ing as the sacrifice was more or less solemn ; and they even 
used, on extraordinary occasions, to bleed themselves at 
the tips of their nostrils, or between the eyebrows. 

Such was the state of idolatry all over Peru, when the 
Inca Mancocapac, the lawgiver of that vast empire, taught 
the savages the worship of the Sun. From this time, sacri- 
fices of various kinds of animals were offered in honor of 
the sun, and also cocoa, corn, rich clothes, and a liquor 
made of water and maize. They always presented the last 
offering to the sun in the following manner : When they 
were very thirsty, the first satisfied their hunger, and after- 
wards dipped the tip of their finger in the vessel into which 
the liquor was poured ; this being done, they lifted up their 
eyes to heaven in a very submissive manner ; shook that 
finger on which the drop hung, and offered it to the sun as 
an acknowledgment for his goodness in providing drink 
for them. At the same time they gave two or three kisses 
to the air. This oblation being made, they all drank as 
they thought proper. 

Every time they entered their temples, the chief man in 
the company laid his hand on one of his eyebrows, and 
whether he tore off any of the hairs or not, he blew it into 
the air before the idol, as a mark of its being an oblation. 
They paid the same adoration to trees, and to all those 
things which a divine virtue had made sacred and religious. 

The savages or Indians of the Caribbee Islands, if they 
may be so called, have no words, it is said, to express a 
supreme Being ; but acknowledge a good and an evil prin- 
ciple, both of which they call Maboia. They believe in a 
multitude of good spirits, one of whom each savage appro- 
priates to himself, under the title of Chemen. To these 
chemens they offer the first of their fruits, and sometimes 
out of gratitude make a feast to their honor. They make 
better images resembling the form under which Maboia 



512 



PAGANS OF PERU. 



reveals himself to them in order to prevent his doing them 
any harm. They wear these images about their necks, and 
pretend that they give them ease. They also fast and cut 
themselves for his sake. 

There was formerly at Campcche a square theatre, or 
scaffold, built of earth and stone, about four cubits high. 
Upon the theatre was fixed the marble statue of a man," 
whom two animals of an extraordinary shape seemed ready 
to tear in pieces. Near this figure a serpent was also re- 
presented, forty-seven feet in length, and of a proportion- 
able thickness, which swallowed up a lion. These two last 
figures were made of marble like the rest, and enclosed in 
some measure by palisadoes. On the pavement were bows 
and arrows, bones and skulls. This is all we are told by 
Purchas concerning these figures, which possibly might 
have some mysterious signification couched under them. 

In the sacrifices made to their idols, by the natives of 
Tobasco, they used to rip up the victim's breast and tear 
out his heart ; they afterwards set, or rather enclosed the 
bloody body of the victim in a hollow made in a particular 
part of the lion's neck. The blood of the victim fell into 
a stone reservoir, on the side of which was placed a stone 
statue representing a man, who seemed to look steadfastly 
at the blood of the sacrificed victim. As to the heart, the 
sacrificing priest, after having torn it out, smeared the idol's 
face with it, and then threw it into the fire, which was 
lighted for that purpose. 



THE END. 



f 




